The program offers educational and therapeutic programs with horses and dogs –Therapeutic Riding and Animal Assisted Therapy. Our program can assist people from a diverse range of backgrounds including; intellectual disabilities, cognitive challenges, chronic mental illness, emotional difficulties, acquired brain injury, autism, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, and physical disabilities. We ar
e committed to improving the quality of life for people with these challenges -children, youth, adults and seniors. CHAAPS is a certified CanTRA Centre (Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association) offering the highest standards for safety and program quality. We are also members of the BC Therapeutic Riding Association -BCTRA, and Horse Council of BC -HCBC. CHAAPS offers educational and therapeutic programs with
purposeful and focused activities. These Activities accomplish
the following:
Grooming -Fine motor skills: Develop strength, coordination and precision of the small muscles in the hands. Obedience -Social skills: Develop skills for listening and following directions, expressive and receptive communication and interacting with others. Agility -Gross motor skills: Develop strength, coordination and endurance of the whole body. Education -Cognitive skills: Learn concept development, sequencing, literacy and numeric skills. Clients of all ages benefit from these structured programs; toddlers to seniors enjoy doing simple activities such as stroking and grooming the dog to more complex activities of combining skills and tasks. The activities can be done with individual clients or as a group session. In our dog programs our instructors collaborate with other professionals such as: Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Early Childhood Educators, Social Workers, Teachers, Mental Health Clinicians, Speech Pathologists and Parents in order to create an individualized program with client specific goals. All of the dogs have Handlers and are Temperament Tested to ensure safety! "Happiness is a warm puppy." Charles Schulz
The CHAAPS Literacy & Education Program promotes reading, improvement and development of literacy skills, as well as other academic skills with the assistance of dogs. It is a subsidiary of our main program; CHAAPS which offers therapeutic riding and animal assisted therapy. The CHAAPS Literacy & Education Program was established by a donation from the Rotary Club of Quesnel Sunrise 2000 and has been further developed thanks to a donation from the Forestry Legacy Foundation –Raiser-A-Reader program http://westcoastpulpcharity.com
