Influence of hippotherapy on psychomotor development of people with special needs

• Autor(a) principal: Barbosa, Gardenia de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Munster, Mey de Abreu Van
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Educação Especial (UFSM)
• Texto Completo: http://periodicos.ufsm.br/educacaoespecial/article/view/4839
• topic: H ippotherapy; Psychomotor; Special needs.

Hippotherapy is a therapeutic and educational process that uses a horse with the purpose of providing physical and psychological improvement for people with special needs. In this study, the goal was to analyze the influence of hippotherapy on psychomotor development of people with special needs. In order to do this, an extensive bibliographical research was performed and from the items found an analysis was carried out through reading the abstracts and selecting the works which involved psychomotor aspects related to hippotherapeutic intervention. As a result, 15 articles were found relevant to the object of this study, which showed evidence for gains in motor skills due to the intervention with the use of horses. It was possible to analyze the frequency of publication of articles on the area, identify the population who benefited from the practice of hippotherapy and the main theories that offer support to research. Through careful literature review, it was possible to conclude that hippotherapy can be an effective tool as intervention in the psychomotor aspects of people with special needs.