The study aim is to develop therapies that will assist patients with special needs to substantially improve their quality of life. Patients will be subjected to therapies in water where dolphins play a major role as therapy participants.

The well documented fact of the positive influence dolphins have on patients with disabilities needs to be quantified. New dolphin and water linked therapies need to be tested and evaluated on patients with different special needs. The water medium removes the fear of falling and will allow patients to explore new abilities more readily and this should result in more rapid patient improvement.

Using her extensive knowledge on equi-therapy, Dr Young will develop dolphin based therapies where she believes they will contribute to increased and more rapid patient benefits. Comparisons between equi- and dolphin therapy will be evaluated.

In addition, certain patients will be subjected to a combination of equi- and dolphin therapy and evaluations will show whether the two treatments can act synergistically and help patients to improve more rapidly. It is anticipated that certain special needs would benefit more from either the equi-therapy or the dolphin therapy.

Hypotheses

The following hypotheses will be tested:

1. Ho = Dolphin therapy will have no impact. With Ha = Dolphin therapy improves patients prognosis significantly.
2. We all ready know that the Ho = Equi-therapy has no impact on patient prognosis does not hold and that Ha = Equi-therapy results in improved patient prognosis has been proven to be significant. Nevertheless both these hypotheses will be confirmed in this study once again.
3. Finally the Ho = that a combination of equi- and dolphin therapy has no impact will be evaluated. This of course gives an Ha = that the combination of dolphin therapy and equi-therapy gives rise to a more rapid and improved reaction for normalizing certain special needs.

Dolphins - Research Study (PDF)

JLSC is currently busy negotiating with the appropriate South African authorities to make the Dolphin therapy dream a reality in the near future.