Autism Therapy: Dolphin Therapy
I was born in Central Florida. Every time the show “Flipper” came on, I was glued to my TV set. I envied Sandy and Bud as they swam with the dolphin Flipper every day (I caught it every weekday afternoon in syndication). 
Little did I know back then that I would be blogging about Flipper? Well, not so much Flipper, but dolphins as a part of aquatics autism therapy.
When our family lived in South Florida, I heard of a “dolphin camp” called Dolphin Cove. Dolphin Cove is located in Key Largo, FL. Dolphin Cove’s autism therapy is headed by Dr. David Nathanson. Nathanson refers to his special brand of therapy as Dolphin/human therapy. His team of therapists offers Special Needs Children & adults therapy with dolphins at Dolphins Cove nine months of the year.
Dr. Nathanson states on the Dolphin Cove website, “Dolphin Human Therapy helps improve skills in speech/language, motor areas, behavior, etc. The DHT program is also family interactive. The staff encourages input and participation from parents, teachers, therapists, and physicians. DHT believes that family involvement, support, and follow-up are essential to the future success of special needs children and adults.”
Dr. Nathanson doe
s say that his brand of autism therapy (Dolphin Human Therapy) does not “cure” autism or related disorders. However, it does help participants improve rapidly. He has seen improvement in people with autism, cerebral palsy, and Downs Syndrome as well.
If you would like more information on Dolphin Cove, this is the link to their website: http://www.dolphinscove.com/dolphin-human-therapy.htm. How I wish for our son’s sake that we weren’t so land locked. This is another out of the box example of aquatics autism therapy helping our children with autism spectrum disorder.
As always, if you have an idea for me to research or a comment, please feel free to leave it here. We are one family, linked by autism.
Many blessings to you and your family,
Deb
