Sleep problems and recall memory in children with Down syndrome and typically developing controls.
For toddlers with Down syndrome, poor sleep speeds up forgetting of new actions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ferguson et al. (2020) asked parents how well their toddlers slept.
They also tested how many new actions the kids could copy after a short delay.
The team compared toddlers with Down syndrome to same-age peers without disabilities.
What they found
More sleep problems linked to faster forgetting only in the Down syndrome group.
Typically developing toddlers forgot at the same rate no matter how they slept.
How this fits with other research
Spriggs et al. (2016) saw equal eyewitness recall in youth with Down syndrome and mental-age matches.
That looks like a contradiction, but D et al. tested one-time eyewitness memory, not day-to-day forgetting.
Ashworth et al. (2013) warned that parent sleep reports can miss real disruptions.
Their actigraphy data remind us to double-check sleep complaints before blaming them for learning dips.
Prehn-Kristensen et al. (2011) showed sleep helps procedural memory in ADHD.
Together these papers tell us sleep-memory links are syndrome-specific, not one-size-fits-all.
Why it matters
If you teach a new sign or play skill to a toddler with Down syndrome, ask parents about snoring, bedtime resistance, or night waking.
When sleep looks rough, add sleep-hygiene coaching or a medical consult before you label the child as slow to learn.
A rested brain keeps yesterday’s therapy gains alive for tomorrow’s session.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one parent question about last night’s sleep before each session; if nights were rough, insert a quick review of yesterday’s target action before teaching anything new.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Research conducted with typically developing (TD) infants and children generally indicates that better habitual sleep and sleep after learning are related to enhanced memory. Less is known, however, about associations between sleep and recall memory in children with Down syndrome (DS). AIMS: The present study was conducted to determine whether parent-reported sleep problems were differentially associated with encoding, 1-month delayed recall memory, and forgetting over time in children with DS and those who were TD. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Ten children with DS (mean age = 33 months, 5 days) and 10 TD children (mean age = 21 months, 6 days) participated in a two-session study. At each session, recall memory was assessed using an elicited imitation paradigm. Immediate imitation was permitted at the first session as an index of encoding, and delayed recall was assessed 1 month later. In addition, parents provided demographic information and reported on child sleep problems. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Although parents did not report more frequent sleep problems for children with DS relative to TD children, regression-based moderation analyses revealed that more frequent sleep problems were associated with increased forgetting of individual target actions and their order by children with DS. Evidence of moderation was not found when examining encoding or delayed recall. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Although group differences were not found when considering parent-reported sleep problems, more frequent sleep problems were positively associated with increased forgetting by children with DS relative to those who were TD. Although future experimental work is needed to determine causality, these results suggest that improved sleep in children with DS might reduce forgetting, ultimately improving long-term recall memory.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2019.103512