RADFORD -- Can riding a horse combat autism? Students and a professor at Radford University are about to find out.

Current research indicates that roughly one in every 150 children will be diagnosed with some form of autism. With such staggering statistics, parents and guardians are continually seeking effective methods of autism treatment, including early intervention practices such as speech-language pathology, and alternative approaches such as therapeutic riding. However, the success of such treatment has yet to be definitively measured.

RU School of Social Work graduate students Kara Nuckols and Meghan Lamberta, along with their faculty advisor Alice King Ingham, hope their current research will lead to the development of the first evaluation tool that will measure the success of therapeutic riding for children living with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Nuckols and Lamberta recently began their required field placement at Healing Strides of Virginia, a nonprofit organization located in Boones Mill that offers a variety of equine assisted therapy to children, adolescents and adults in the Roanoke Valley area. Subsequently, Nuckols and Lamberta requested to utilize Healing Strides as their research project.

Nuckols and Lamberta plan to indirectly observe approximately 11 riders at the center who have ASD, receive input from parents and trainers, and measure the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the research project. “We will measure the progress of the children, looking at several aspects such as their motivation and success over time,” explained Nuckols. “We will also work with the parents to determine if the objectives learned in therapeutic riding translate to home life.”

Therapeutic riding has been considered beneficial to children diagnosed with ASD because such treatment promotes speech function, social interaction, organizational skills, and independence.

“We want to get an understanding of the depth of how parents feel the therapy helps their children,” added Lamberta.

King Ingham, who serves on the advisory board committee of Healing Strides, said this is not the first time graduate social work students have taken an interest in the value of therapeutic riding for children with ASD. “This is the fourth and fifth project focused on therapeutic riding, but each time, it gets more complex,” she said. “Kara’s and Meghan’s results will be used to build a foundation for continued research into how we measure the efficacy of therapeutic riding.”

King Ingham, who will primarily be responsible for collecting data from the Healing Strides project and presenting it nationally, hopes to translate Nuckol’s and Lamberta’s research into journal articles and grants.

“This is just a starting point,” said Nuckols. “There will be additional research, and it has tremendous implications for Healing Strides, for physical therapists, for RU students. This could be very big.”

Meanwhile, Diane Millar, the director of RU’s Autism Center, is working in collaboration with other RU faculty to develop a study that responds to the critical need for research on treatment efficacy for children diagnosed with ASD.

“Families and professionals seek to identify the most effective treatment approaches for children with ASD, but there continues to be a dearth of research to support the variety of available treatments,” Millar explained.

In June, RU’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders hosted its first RiteCare Family Autism Camp, an intensive interdisciplinary program. According to Pat Rossi, RU’s RiteCare clinic coordinator and speech-language pathologist, the camp offered an opportunity to research and evaluate the effectiveness of speech and language intervention for children diagnosed with autism in an attempt to make breakthroughs for future generations.

The RU program was modeled after the most recent treatment recommendations published by the National Research Council on Autism and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

“The treatment component of the RU program offered children with ASD four hours of therapy per day, five days per week, for three consecutive weeks; a one-to-one child/clinician ratio; group and individual therapy; a combination of structured and naturalistic models of service delivery; and opportunities to target therapy goals during activities with typically-developing peers,” Millar said. “Families participated throughout, observing and actively participating in treatment sessions and attending educational workshops led by professionals with expertise in ASD.”

Millar and her colleagues are currently in the process of finalizing their analysis. Preliminary examination of the data has indicated that there are significant positive gains in the communication and social skills of children with ASD who participated in the Family Autism Camp. Four out of the five two- and three-year-olds were successful in increasing their initiation in social attempts with peers. Two older children who worked on making comments to peers as a method of initiating conversation demonstrated significant increases (approximately 60 percent). Dissemination of the final results is expected via a national presentation and publication in 2009.

To learn more about the therapeutic riding research project, contact Alice King Ingham at (540) 831-7673 or akinging@radford.edu. To learn more about RU’s Autism Center and treatment research, contact Diane Millar at (540) 831-7635 or dcmillar@radford.edu.