Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to present this Special Issue of Children, in which we aim to elucidate the current state-of-the-art approaches that incorporate animals into treatments in order to contribute to children’s health and wellbeing. As the Guest Editors, and on behalf of the editorial team, we invite you to submit your research to this Special Issue.

There is a growing interest in the potential benefits of animal-assisted interventions (AAI). These interventions can be utilized in healthcare, education, and other services to mitigate symptoms and improve the health and well-being of children with various types of behavioral and developmental disorders, including children with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Down syndrome, obesity, and children who have been sexually abused. In AAI, a wide variety of domesticated, well-socialized, and specially trained animals are employed, such as cats, dogs, horses, guinea pigs, birds, and rats.

Although an expanding body of literature indicates that incorporating animals into these interventions is promising, more research on AAI is warranted to further enhance our knowledge and understanding of AAI. Therefore, in this Special Issue, we will provide insights into the various ways in which animals are perceived to contribute to children’s health and wellbeing. We welcome reviews, original articles, case reports, opinion papers, and brief reports on animal-assisted therapy, animal-assisted education, and animal-assisted activities.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Children.

Dr. Nienke C. Peters-Scheffer
Prof. Dr. Robert Didden
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• animal-assisted interventions
• children
• health
• wellbeing
• development