Potential mechanisms and research progress of animal-assisted interventions for autism spectrum disorder

Table 1 Summary of clinical outcomes of animal-assisted intervention in autism spectrum disorder

Clinical outcome	Dog-assisted intervention	Therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted interventions	Dolphin-assisted intervention	Other animal-assisted interventions
Social communication and social interaction	[9,19,22,24-30,34,35,66,76,77,79-82,143]	[4,15,41,43,46,53-59,64,65,73,78,84-103,105,106]	[10,48,49]	[50-52,109,112]
Repetitive and rigid behaviors	[22,24,29]	[53,56-58,65,90,95,96,100,102]	-
Sensory processing and sensory integration	-	[39,41,60,94,106]	-	-
Emotional regulation	[9,24,28,30,35,66,79,81,111]	[45,46,62-65,78,85,97,100,103-107]	-	[50,109,110]
Motor function	[68,69]	[3,4,40-43,46,65,67,86,94,108]	-	[61]
Sleep disturbances and hyperactivity	[1,24,27,72]	[53,63,73,103-105]	-	-
Caregiver stress and negative emotional burden	[18,27,77,83]	[65,74]	-	-
Family functioning and quality of care	[76,77]	[62,64,65,78,91]	-	-