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MONKEYS ASSISTING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
A BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ABSTRACT: Andrea Campbell has been foster mother to Ziggy since 1989, when the capuchin monkey was just five weeks old. Ziggy came to the Campbell's through Helping Hands, a nonprofit organization that trains capuchins to assist quadriplegic individuals. Throughout their adventures, one vital fact has remained: that Ziggy, not unlike her human brothers will leave the Campbells to fulfill her life's role. And just as she has changed their lives, the Campbells know that Ziggy will bring immeasurable joy and assistance to someone who needs her.


Giguere, P. "Monkey's business: to aid handicapped." CHICAGO TRIBUNE (January 28 1979): 3.


ABSTRACT: A photo-essay focusing on a teenager with quadripeligia and his capuchin monkey, illustrating how capuchins are trained to provide help and companionship to people who are disabled. (Juvenile literature category)


ABSTRACT: This preliminary study reports manipulations in an 8-month infant capuchin monkey, Cebus apella, confronted with a variety of objects, during five 2-hour sessions. This subject is raised in a human environment as it participates to the "Aide Simienne aux Personnes Handicapees (Kerpape)" project. Objects have been chosen in order to expose the capuchin to manipulations it will be asked to perform when placed with a quadriplegic. This paper reports the analysis of five hours of video recording. During two sub-sessions within an experimental session, the "human mother" pointed the objects to the monkey, sequentially, either with a vocal designation or not. The results show that the monkey tends to contact more objects and manipulates them more when they have been previously designated by the "mother". This suggest a form of social facilitation. There is no evidence for imitation.


ABSTRACT: This resource guide presents information on a variety of ways that animals can be used as a therapeutic modality with people having disabilities. Aspects addressed include: pet ownership and selection criteria; dogs (including service dogs, hearing/signal dogs, seeing leader dogs, and social/specialty dogs); horseriding for both therapy and fun; and monkeys to provide companionship and independence. Contact information and a brief description of services are provided for 12 organizations which specialize in training animals for use by people with disabilities.


ABSTRACT: Reports on an ongoing research project on stereotypic behaviors with blind children in Barcelona, Spain. The goal of this research is to establish the causes of stereotypic behavior and to understand what it means. The research includes examination of nonhuman primate studies, the observation of stereotypic behavior in sighted children, data on 50 blind or low-vision children, and a longitudinal study of 5 totally blind children from a few months of age. Mannerisms and "blindisms" covering a range of verbal and motor behavior are defined and discussed, as are the variables of behavior related to them. Conditions under which blind children may display stereotypic behaviors include situations in which they have little or no control, demanding situations, situations that refer to the visual world, or situations of loneliness or isolation.


ABSTRACT: Helping Hands: Simian Aides for the Disabled is a project to train and provide capuchin monkeys to quadriplegics. The brainchild of Mary Joan Willard, a former research assistant to psychologist B. F. Skinner, the program is based at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Using behavior modification techniques, Willard trains the capuchins to follow the directions of a quadriplegic using a mouth-controlled laser to indicate objects to be fetched. The capuchins can also learn voice commands. The monkeys are useful, but what is more important is that they improve the quality of their handicapped owners' lives by providing the psychological benefits of greater independence, affection, and physical contact.


ABSTRACT: A condensation of an article in the October 1986 issue of Smithsonian describes Helping Hands: Simian Aides for the Disabled, a nonprofit organization that supplies trained capuchin monkeys to quadriplegics. By fetching food and other items for its owner, a monkey can lessen a disabled person's dependence on other people.


ABSTRACT: A capuchin monkey named Mymu helped quadraplegic Kim Torbitt regain hope for a better life. Torbitt became a quadriplegic at 18 after being thrown from a car. Torbitt contacted Helping Hands, a Boston-based organization that trains capuchin monkeys to help quadriplegics by doing routine things that quadriplegics cannot do for themselves. Torbitt was one of only 37 of the more than 100,000 quadriplegics in the U.S. who was chosen to have a capuchin monkey aide. For months, Torbitt treated Mymu as a member of the family, but after developing a rash, he realized he was allergic to Mymu. Torbitt, who returned the monkey to Helping Hands, is considering a replacement.


ABSTRACT: This report describes an evaluation made by the Rehabilitation R&D;Evaluation Unit (REU) of research conducted jointly by Helping Hands, Inc., Boston, MA and Boston University which was funded by the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, Department of Veterans Affairs. The report covers an assessment conducted in February and March 1989 to determine the activities, effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages exhibited by the capuchin monkeys placed as aides in the residences of disabled persons.


ABSTRACT: The adaptive functions of occupation during the phylogenetic history of the human species and the ontogenetic development of individual primates re examined through a review of relevant research of wild and captive nonhuman primates. This review suggests that the effectiveness of occupation as a therapeutic medium throughout life span development is fundamentally tied to humankind's phylogenetic history. It is accordingly argued that there is considerable justification to maintain occupational therapy's historical commitment to therapeutic occupation as the profession's primary treatment modality. To support this commitment, questions to guide practice and research are identified that emanate from the primate literature and that are highly germane to the therapeutic process in occupational therapy. These questions address: (a) the relationship between the press of the various environments in which occupational therapists practice and subsequent opportunities availed to patients for engagement in occupation; (b) the relationship between the extent to which patients are or are not empowered to exert real control over their use of time and their eventual development of disabling conditions; and (c) the therapeutic efficacy of occupation as compared with other treatment approaches that are not comparably holistic.

VIDEOTAPES:



ABSTRACT: An unusual friendship between a handicapped boy and a lost orangutan highlight this story of courage and hope. Silent since losing his hearing to meningitis, young Toby Wyler takes a bitter stance against the world and his family, refusing to accept his new stepfather. But when a highly trained ape named Casey is thrown from a truck near Toby's home, the boy soon has a secret friend he can communicate with via sign language.


ABSTRACT: Organizes science programs thematically for classroom use. Features Bob McDonald as host who makes learning fun with amazing science information and engaging activities. Part 3 of the eight part series asks how well humans and animals understand each other in segments about monitor lizards, imprinting a beaver, polar bears, dog -sledding teams and monkeys helping the disabled.


The following three videotapes include some material relating to monkeys assisting the disabled. For further information about borrowing these tapes, contact Ray Hamel at: hamel@primate.wisc.edu. The tapes are also available for purchase through Helping Hands, telephone: 1-617-787-4419.


ABSTRACT: A segment from the television program Wild About Animals featuring Helping Hands. Features Judy Zazula, head of Helping Hands. Discusses the training procedures used for the capuchins, showing how trainers simulate actual situations in order to teach the monkeys to carry out specific tasks. Also features Henrietta, a capuchin who assists a New York City woman.

ABSTRACT: A segment from the television program The Extraordinary featuring a capuchin monkey trained by Helping Hands. Depicts Brett Downey, a Nevada man assisted by Max, a trained capuchin. Shows the typical tasks Max carries out for Brett. Also shows the process Brett went through to acquire Max, including footage from the video Brett made which illustrated the specific tasks Helping Hands needed to train Max to carry out.

ABSTRACT: A segment from the television program Day and Date, featuring Helping Hands. Shows Sue Strong, a New York City woman, and Henrietta, the trained capuchin monkey who assists her in routine tasks. Shows the simple tasks Henrietta carries out for Sue. Discusses the process by which Helping Hands trains capuchins like Henrietta.


URL: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/pin/helpcit.html
Created by Jen-Tai Tseng
Last updated: November 20, 1999.


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