On Knowing More Than We Know
By Rick Rader, MD, FAAIDD, FAADM, Editor-in-chief, Helen Journal
According to Service Pup Solutions, an organization dedicated to advocating for service animals, “The concept of service dogs is not a modern invention. Historical evidence suggests that the use of dogs for assistance dates back to ancient times. In Roman literature, there are accounts of dogs guiding the visually impaired, and artifacts from various ancient cultures depict dogs in roles that closely resemble those of modern service animals.
While the “Seeing-Eye Guide Dogs” are representative of using dogs to assist individuals with vision impairment, the use of service, assisting and support animals has evolved and has been employed in a variety of disabilities. There are psychiatric service animals, animals that are specifically trained to assist people with panic attacks, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, medication reminder animals, animals that provide deep pressure. Hearing impaired animals assist in alerting owners to sounds like doorbells, smoke alarms, or ringing phones. There are animals that are trained to detect changes in blood sugar levels through scent. Allergy detection animals are trained to sniff out direct-threat allergens.
“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem. ”
We have mobility assistance animals that help individuals with physical disabilities by opening doors. They can also retrieve items and even help with undressing. There are animals that serve as an emotional support for people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They can help interrupt flashbacks. A newly emerging service animal has been trained to assist autistic people to improve their social interaction. We have animals that provide support to people with seizures, animals that can detect changes in cardiac rhythms, and animals that can provide support for people who are undergoing palliative and hospice care.
While we have collared, recruited and trained animals on how to support those of us who need assistance, what, if left to their own devices do animals do to support disabled members of their own species?
When it comes to understanding the need for skills to support the diverse types of disabilities, it appears that we have a lot to learn from the animals.
Researchers at Concordia University have found that primates, our closest living biological relatives, show a “remarkable ability to modify their behaviors to accommodate their physical disabilities and impairments.”
The disabilities were either the result of congenital malformations or injuries (similar to most human disabilities) and the primates demonstrated behavioral flexibility as well as innovative compensatory actions to address the disabilities. There was also evidence that the most empathetic primates benefitted from behaviors that mimicked actions by their mothers early in life and from their peers within their population group as they aged.
What was a noteworthy observation from the researchers was that a high proportion of disabilities had a connection to human activity as a potential or actual cause of impairment. So, in essence, humans provided the disabling conditions, but it was the innate nature of the animals that resulted in them providing care and support for themselves. Some of the human-initiated disabilities were the result of being caught in snares, vehicle collisions or genetic links between transmitted from people or contaminants in the environment.
Three take-aways from studying the primates could be valuable lessons for the rest of us upright walkers:
1. The need and value of “behavioral flexibility.” The researchers noted that “despite being physically impaired or disabled, the primates were able to adjust their species-typical behavior to survive, reproduce, and thrive.” Some primates were observed using two or three limbs for locomotion instead of their usual four; and without the use of assistive devices. The answer was accommodation based on what they had and what they could use.
2. When all else fails, look to the mothers, as they somehow always seem to know. While all primates (and humans) form close bonds with their mothers early in life, “mothers of babies with disabilities will provide additional care and modify their own behavior depending on their offspring’s needs.” Others in the group (not directly related) will modify their own species-typical care to help a disabled co-member.” One eyebrow raising example was an adult male Japanese macaque who adopted a young orphaned disabled monkey and carried her while he moved on three limbs when the group traveled. One can better understand the axiom, “monkey see, monkey do.”
3. Just don’t stand and scratch each other…innovate. Primates with disabilities were seen developing new ways to carry on with daily activities including grooming, feeding and transporting their offspring. Through trial and error, they figured out new ways to use their limbs. Those with a missing limb used their singular arm to pinch edibles against their torsos to eat.
The research team was exposed to new insights involving the primates’ adaptive capabilities, their resilience, and the many “unexpected repercussions human activity can have on non-human animals.”
Many of the disabled research subjects at the Awajishima Monkey Center (Japan) were observed to be “leading their lives and doing the things the other monkeys do. They find ways to modify their behaviors like unique styles of movement, ways of carrying their infants, techniques for foraging and feeding and individual styles for social grooming – to compensate for physical impairments.” Just the identical outcomes we strive to see in humans with disabilities— doing the things the other humans do.
It appears that while we might have had to train animals in learning specific skills to assist humans with impairments, it’s obvious we didn’t have to teach them how to care. Looks like they might have beaten us to the punch. Empathy appears to be a trait that they had already singled out and embraced… which amplifies the observation of Irene M. Pepperberg: “Clearly, animals know more than we think, and think a great deal more than we know.”