Sleep quality, functional skills, and communication in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder.
Poor sleep weakens daily-living skills in preschoolers with ASD—screen sleep first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lamônica et al. (2021) looked at preschoolers with autism.
They asked parents to rate sleep quality, daily-living skills, and communication.
Then they checked if worse sleep went hand-in-hand with weaker skills.
What they found
Kids who slept poorly also scored lower on everyday tasks like dressing and feeding.
Surprisingly, sleep did not link to how many words the children used.
More sleep trouble also meant higher autism-severity ratings.
How this fits with other research
Storch et al. (2012) saw the same sleep-skill link in a wider age range.
Hodge et al. (2021) found that IQ, not sleep, predicted adaptive skills.
The two 2021 studies seem to clash, but they measured different things.
Cusin used parent sleep logs; Antoinette used IQ tests and family income.
Both can be true: low IQ and poor sleep each drag skills down.
Why it matters
If a preschool client struggles with dressing or toileting, ask about bedtime.
A short parent survey on sleep can flag kids who need a medical or behavioral sleep plan.
Fixing sleep may give you faster gains than adding more skill trials.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AIM: This study aimed to correlate sleep quality, the performance of functional skills (mobility, self-care, and social function), communication, independence, and severity of ASD in children with ASD. METHOD: 58 children between 3 and 5 years and 11 months old were investigated. The Childhood Autism Rating Scale was applied to determine the severity of autism; the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children was used to investigate sleep quality, and the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory to investigate functional abilities and independence of the children. RESULTS: 68.9 % of the children showed indicative of sleep disorders. There was no correlation between the different sleep disorders and communication. Sleep disorders showed a negative correlation with functional performance and a positive correlation with ASD severity. INTERPRETATION: The current study offers an exploration between sleep and functional skills in children with ASD. These findings provide important clinical implications in the diagnosis and intervention process of children with ASD and also stimulate reflections on the importance in minimize the impact of sleep disorders and functional abilities on the quality of life of these individuals and their families.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104024