Description
Riding on the Autism Spectrum: How Horses Open New Doors for Children with ASD
Claudine Pelletier-Milet. French riding instructor Pelletier-Milet shares countless stories, anecdotal evidence, of how equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) can be a means to forming and nurturing lines of communication while encouraging a healthy and natural evolution of self in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She sorts through theory from fields of medicine, education, and psychology, while applying her own intuition and empathy in her work. This book raises questions, answers many of them, and recounts breakthroughs and moments of elation certain to bring hope to the families and caregivers of autistic individuals. Pelletier-Milet’s personal experiences with autistic children, and the transformation she has witnessed time and again in the saddle, remain a universal source of inspiration and hope, and one that should be shared, regardless of native land or language. Pelletier-Milet feels that an autistic person is someone who is, in many ways, “in the dark” and just longing to “light up.” Over the last 15 years she has worked at her horseback riding stable in France, outside the mainstream debate about autism and its causes, creating a magical world in which her horses and ponies help her autistic students (her “magnificent horsemen,” as she calls them) develop on their own time in a joyful and relaxed atmosphere. Paperback. 192 pages.
