Research: Parent-based Sleep Education Workshops in Autism

Authored by Reed, HE, McGrew SG, Artibee K., and Surdkya K. in Journal of Child Neurology, Volume 24, Issue 8, p. 936-945, (2009).

Article summary (posted Jan 27, 2010):

Educating parents about behavioral sleep strategies may improve sleep habits in their children with autism.

This study looked at whether a parent education program about sleep habits might help parents to create better habits at home. Parents of 20 children with autism (3 to 10 years old) participated in the study. Parents attended three 2-hour workshops led by 2 physicians. Parents learned about setting good daytime, bedtime, and nighttime routines. They also learned strategies for dealing with their children if they wake up in the middle of the night. One month after the last seminar, parents reported improvements in 6 out of 10 measures of their child’s sleep habits. Sleep habits improved even for children with low receptive language abilities. The authors said that a few sessions of parent education may be very helpful to parents whose children have sleep problems.

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autism, bedtime, doctor, education, home, language, parent, parent training, receptive language, sleep, sleep disorder
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