An analysis of the experiences of children with cerebral palsy in therapeutic horse riding.
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Date
2009
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Abstract
This study utilised a qualitative interpretive approach to investigate the subjective
experiences of six children with cerebral palsy who participated in a therapeutic
horse riding intervention programme over a two-year period. Data was collected
through a triangulation of methods and sources of data in the form of proxy
reports from teachers, parents and therapists, and participant observations on
my part. Research in the field of disability and rehabilitation remains largely
ungrounded with respect to formalised theorising around concepts such as
strengths, capabilities, and well-being. In attempting to address this gap, the
nascent sub-discipline of positive psychology was identified as a field that holds
significant research utility. Arguably, its keynote contribution entails directing
researchers and practitioners in the field of disability and rehabilitation to the aim
of building, reinforcing and extending disabled individuals' strengths in order to
optimise their functioning. Consistent with existing work, this study found that the
participants' lives were characterised by experiences of difference and
marginalisation in relation to non-disabled individuals. More striking, however,
was the finding that they were subject to experiences of difference and othering
in relation to their disabled peers. This group dynamic seemed to be accounted
for in terms of a hierarchy of similarities and differences with respect to their
capabilities for communication and motor functioning. Further, the findings
suggested that the participants tended to utilise their bodies, the site of their
impairments, to engage with their environments and social others in their own
idiosyncratic and agentic ways. By virtue of the tendency to negotiate and at
times transcend their impaired physicalities, the participants were perceived as
functionally autonomous, which worked to challenge prevailing stereotypes with
regard to individuals with profound forms of physical disability. Importantly, such
features impacted upon the degree and quality of their engagements with their
physical and psychosocial environments in significant ways. In addition, in terms
of the therapeutic riding activities engaged with during the course of this study,
the participants came to experience their bodies as bodies that work. This
seemed to have had positive implications for how they felt about their bodies and
themselves. An enhanced sense of personal worth also tended to minimise their
experiences of their bodies as impaired and dis-abled. In this way, their
participation in therapeutic horse riding facilitated the children's experiences of
themselves as more than disabled, thereby indicating the emancipatory potential
of participating in this form of intervention. Moreover, it was noted that the limited
body of existing, largely quantitatively oriented research in the field of therapeutic
horse riding has often been methodologically wanting. As disconcerting was the
noticeable absence of theorising around the mechanisms and processes by
which therapeutic horse riding effected changes. It was therefore fitting to draw
on theoretical frameworks within psychology to delineate possible mechanisms
and processes by which participation in therapeutic horse riding could potentially
effect subtle, meaningful shifts in the everyday functioning and psychological
well-being of children with disabilities. This study contributed to existing research
within the field of disability and rehabilitation through its efforts to yield "thick
descriptions" and "thick interpretations" in combination with the theory-laden
validation of findings around the everyday subjective experiences of children with
disabilities.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.
Keywords
Cerebral palsy--Treatment., Horsemanship--Therapeutic use., Theses--Psychology.