A Perfect Starter Pet

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) writes that a child who “learns to care for an animal, and treat it kindly and patiently, may get invaluable training in learning to treat people the same way.” AACAP also notes that “children raised with pets show many benefits. Developing positive feelings about pets can contribute to a child's self-esteem and self-confidence. Positive relationships with pets can aid in the development of trusting relationships with others. A good relationship with a pet can also help in developing non-verbal communication, compassion, and empathy. Pets can serve different purposes for children:

• They can be safe recipients of secrets and private thoughts--children often talk to their pets, like they do to their stuffed animals.

• They provide lessons about life, including reproduction, birth, illnesses, accidents, death, and bereavement.

• They can help develop responsible behavior in the children who care for them.

• They provide a connection to nature.

• They can teach respect for other living things.”

(American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019)

From the BBC:

“Many parents intuitively feel that looking after an animal can offer children valuable lessons about caregiving, responsibility and empathy. "It's really important, especially for young kids, to learn that someone's perspective might be different from their own," says Megan Mueller, associate professor of human-animal interaction at Tufts University, US. "That's an easier lesson to learn, perhaps, with an animal than it is with, say, a sibling or a peer."

But claims about the beneficial impacts of pets on children go further, suggesting that pets can influence children's social skills, physical health, and even cognitive development, and that keeping them is associated with higher levels of empathy. For children with autism and their families, pet care may help reduce stress and create opportunities to form supportive bonds.

Other research shows that children gain from animals in-the-moment, too. In one pair of studies, children made fewer errors on an object categorisation task and needed fewer prompts in a memory task when there was a dog in the room. Research has even found that, for adults at least, the simple act of viewing our pets as family members improves our wellbeing – though headlines touting the wide-ranging benefits of pet ownership are not without criticism, since people often believe that their pets improve their health and happiness, even when objective measures don't show any difference.” (Oakes, 2022)

Research has also suggested that encouraging children to participate in pet care can promote attachment between children and their pet, resulting in positive outcomes for both children (such as reduced aggression, better well-being, and quality of life) and pets (such as humane treatment.) (Hawkins, Williams, & Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 2006)

The NIH Reports:

“Interacting with animals has been shown to decrease levels of cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and lower blood pressure. Other studies have found that animals can reduce loneliness, increase feelings of social support, and boost your mood.

…

Another study found that children with autism spectrum disorder were calmer while playing with guinea pigs in the classroom. When the children spent 10 minutes in a supervised group playtime with guinea pigs, their anxiety levels dropped. The children also had better social interactions and were more engaged with their peers. The researchers suggest that the animals offered unconditional acceptance, making them a calm comfort to the children.

“Animals can become a way of building a bridge for those social interactions,” Griffin says. He adds that researchers are trying to better understand these effects and who they might help.

Animals may help you in other unexpected ways. A recent study showed that caring for fish helped teens with diabetes better manage their disease. Researchers had a group of teens with type 1 diabetes care for a pet fish twice a day by feeding and checking water levels. The caretaking routine also included changing the tank water each week. This was paired with the children reviewing their blood glucose (blood sugar) logs with parents.

Researchers tracked how consistently these teens checked their blood glucose. Compared with teens who weren’t given a fish to care for, fish-keeping teens were more disciplined about checking their own blood glucose levels, which is essential for maintaining their health.” (National Institute of Health, 2018)

Many of these studies focus on companion animals that are bigger and furrier (like dogs and cats), but we think other kinds of smaller pets (like our beetles) still offer a special learning opportunity, an alternative mode of pet-keeping where a large mammal isn’t a realistic/convenient option, or as a way to introduce the child to the broader world of ecology beyond commonly available domesticated pets.

As aptly put by the Los Angeles Times (2005), “many kids prefer creepy-crawlies as pets”, and as passionately argued by Margie Palatini’s children’s picture book, an insect may turn out to be the perfect pet for the whole family!

Due to urbanization and the rise of sedentary pastimes, children are experiencing less connection with nature, a phenomenon referred to as “the extinction of experience” by researchers (Soga & Gaston, 2016).

Research suggests that childhood participation with nature, even “domesticated” nature, may set an individual on a trajectory toward adult environmentalism (Wells & Lekies, 2006).

In one study, researchers assessed a six-week bird-feeding and monitoring project ("Bird Buddies")-- an initiative conducted across eight (sub-)urban primary schools in the UK, (N = 220, 7-10 yo). They found evidence for enhanced awareness of local biodiversity, alongside significant gains in both bird identification knowledge and attitudes, which were greatest for children with little prior exposure to nature. Many children expressed a keenness to continue improving the environmental value of their school grounds and to apply elements of the project at home. Student project evaluation scores were consistently positive. Mirroring this, participating teachers endorsed the project as a positive learning experience for their students. One year after the project, several schools were continuing to feed and watch birds. They concluded that engagement in similar types of environmental activities, if repeated locally/longer term, could enhance children’s experience with nature in urban settings with combined positive environmental impact (White, Eberstein, & Scott, 2018).