The book "9 Key Ideas: Cooperative Learning," by Pere Pujolás, recounts how, in a group of eight-year-old students that included an autistic child—whom he calls S—both the "typical" students and the autistic student benefited greatly from the teachers' approach. Among other examples, he explains that the other students came to understand what nonverbal communication is.
The group's reflection on communication, messages, and verbal and nonverbal, coded and uncoded, language, prompted by S's presence in their class, was not a hindrance, as it was part of the curriculum the second-grade students were expected to work on and learn. The teacher asked the group to reflect on what S "was saying," even though she wasn't speaking. They discovered that communication was possible not only through words, but also through gestures and behaviors, and they realized that they, too, sometimes "spoke" certain things like S, without using words. The behaviors and gestures they considered to be "messages" were written on a mural: gestures, shouts, cries, smiles, caresses, slaps, scratches, pinches, rocking, humming, not looking… As they noted them on the mural and related them to situations, memories and anecdotes starring S, and in other cases other boys or girls, they came to the conclusion that, in this non-verbal communicative dimension, S could be considered a real "talkative one".
This inclusive view of "different" children can be perfectly applied to "different" (non-human) animals. The suggestion isn't to bring an animal into the classroom as a teaching resource (since, besides being unethical, this reinforces the idea in students that animals are resources at our service), but rather to do other kinds of exercises. For example, children who live with animals or who observe animals in the park could explain how they act when they are scared, happy, angry, affectionate, etc. Or, students could be shown pictures and asked to describe how they think the animals feel and what might have caused those feelings.
In this way, they will understand, as happened in the Pujolás quote, that animals, although they don't speak like us, do communicate and try to tell us things. We just have to try to understand them, and we will understand what they want to tell us.
What are these animals feeling? Why do you think they feel this way?
Relajación: 
Cosquillas:
Curiosidad: 
Disgusto:
Sorpresa, intranquilidad, susto:
Impotencia:
Miedo: 
Loneliness:
Tristeza: 