Animal assisted therapy available in Long Beach

A creative approach to helping children

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of Dec. 19, 2008/ 22 Kislev 5769

Sarah Appleman’s “eureka” moment came eight years ago when she and co-worker Henik Calderon voluntarily brought specially trained dogs for a therapy session with special needs children.

“Hey, it works!” she said. “We all saw the positive effects. I quit my job and opened the facility.”

Appleman and Calderon are business partners in Paws4Peds (short for pediatrics), a Long Beach-based facility that uses animal assisted therapy along with conventional occupational and physical therapy to motivate and enhance treatment of special needs patients. They opened at their current location five years ago.

Appleman, an occupational therapist, and Calderon, a physical therapist, met while working for New York City’s Board of Education. They saw a shy and introverted wheelchair-bound child with cerebral palsy who did not want to get out of her wheelchair, Appleman recalled. They bought a walking, barking toy dog and the child wanted to get out of her wheelchair to play with the toy. They then bought a black and white shih tzu, Murray, and brought it to the girl.

“She wanted to get out and play with the dog,” Appleman recounted. “It was just amazing and from there we went to the JCC.”

The two dogs they currently use, Murray and a poodle shih tzu mix, Albert, were trained at Rick’s Canine Workshop in Syosset in basic obedience and canine’s good citizen. Both dogs and both business partners are certified by the Delta Society.

“It’s not pet therapy,” Appleman explained. “We trained these dogs to be used in animal assisted therapy –– it’s a very big difference.”

They brought the dogs voluntarily once a week for part of each session during a six-week after school program for special needs children at the JCC in Plainview. They watched the children interacting with the dogs and realized that they needed to open a center for therapy.

They now have about 35 people on staff, including occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists. They treat about 125 children a week and also travel to schools all over Nassau County.

They have two Herman’s tortoises, Steve and Lori, and a Mali Uromastyx lizard named Lola, in addition to the dogs used in animal assisted therapy.

"Children who normally didn’t talk were talking to the animals,” noted Appleman. She described a child who never spoke or interacted but then asked for a piece of cheese to feed one of the dogs. Parents have told her that children say their first words as a result of the therapy.

“Children are reaching goals in language, socialization, motor skills and achieving to be with animals,” she said. “The animals are used as motivaters and assisters [sic]. It’s very successful.”

They are also producing a book to help children learn to write and even plan to come out with a line of toys.

“We lecture doctors, teachers and have a power point presentation on sensory techniques and integration and the benefits of animal assisted therapy,” Appleman added.

She gave an example of working on strengthening a child’s ability to throw by having the child throw a weighted toy frog and having the dog run to fetch it. Children feed and race against the turtles.

“It’s a unique, fun loving place where parents and therapists love to work,” explained Appleman. “They love to come and we see the results in children achieving their goals.”

For more information, call (516) 889-PAWS (7297) or go to www.paws4peds.com.