Parents and Children with Autism Benefit from Sleep Education

Vanderbilt, University of Colorado and the University of Toronto study on 80 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) revealed that sleep-education is important to autistic children.

The study results indicated that individual or group sleep education provided to parents improved sleep performance, anxiety, life quality of the children as opposed to the earlier adopted training based on pamphlet distribution.

“The parents also benefited; they reported a higher level of parenting competency” said Beth Malow, a pediatric professor in reference to benefits of sleep education.

The autistic children were examined on the causes of sleep problems prior to conducting the education. Their parents taught on advantages of providing limited caffeine, discouraging computer games and increasing physical activity to their children as a habit for promoting sleep during the day and in the evening. They were then assisted to formulate a chart suitable for establishing a bedtime routine.

 Future plans are to incorporate IT when conducting sleep education and encourage networking through partnership with other pediatric associations.