It was then when she began to consider the fact that the dolphins could possibly aid in therapeutic programs for handicapped patients. In 1978 and 1979 the first dolphin-assisted pilot was conducted. It took place at Ocean World in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida by Dr. David Nathanson, who is now known as the father of dolphin assisted therapy. It was at this time that the dolphin assisted therapy programs developed into two days per week, one therapist program, at the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Florida from 1988 to 1994. In 1995/1996, Dolphin assisted therapy became a full time, five day per week, multiple therapist program at Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, Florida. Finally in 1997 Dolphin assisted therapy became a full time, multiple therapist programs at the Miami Seaquarium on Virginia Key in Miami, Florida. This is the original dolphin therapy center and, they now categorize their therapy as Dolphin-Human Therapy. Many other dolphin assisted therapy centers have opened and have treated numerous patients, but the .
"Dolphin-Human Therapy program alone recorded 13,000 therapy sessions conducted in 1988-1997, with over 900 children treated. These statistics included patients from 37 states in the U.S. and 39 different countries" (Nathanson, 1998, p. 23).
In the field of therapy there are three theoretical bases. The first base is the attention deficit hypotheses. This explains why many people from the disabled population have such a hard time with learning and motivation. This hypothesis states that mentally disabled people have trouble processing all the different dimensions of a particular stimulus, rather than the inability to process information. .
In order for these people to overcome this, learning may be induced by first exposing them for long enough periods of time to cues of a stimulus, which in turn can elicit behavior that learning has taken place. Dolphin assisted therapy supports the fact that animals appear to increase attention; thereby it improves the human's cognitive process.
