Therapy dogs are brought into schools following a disaster such as the death of a student, a school shooting, fire, or severe natural disaster. These dogs offer the distressed children comfort. 

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- Initiate interaction 
- Provide additional social support 
- Intervene after a crisis 
- Work with mental health professional as 'co-therapist'

Animal Assisted Therapy for Children Purposes 

Jalongo, M.R. & Guth, L.J. (2022). Animal-assisted counseling for young children: Evidence base, best practices, and future prospects. Early Childhood Education Journal, 51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-022-01368-5. 

Animal-assisted counseling for young children: Evidence base, best practices, and future prospects 

The presence of an animal has been known to make interactions between people less stressful as the focus of attention and conversation tends to shift towards the animal. Therefore, in animal assisted therapy, animals can help the clients feel more at ease while talking to their therapist. This is especially beneficial to children who may feel even more nervous as they are speaking to an adult whom they don't know very well. 

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