2-156 - Child Sleep, Parenting, and School Readiness

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is growing emphasis on the role played by children’s sleep and sleep schedules in the development of the social, emotional, and cognitive skills that impact school readiness and early school success. This symposium presents work from three research programs examining longitudinal linkages between child sleep and early cognitive skills, social abilities, and neural processing prior to and during early school entry, and the role that parents can play in promoting quality child sleep. The first presentation identifies several characteristics of preschool child sleep (e.g., variability, timing, duration, latency to sleep), objectively derived from sleep-wake monitors, that predict teacher-reported attentional problems, externalizing behavior, and peer rejection. The second presentation reports that child sleep duration, objectively assessed before kindergarten entry, robustly predicts children’s academic and social outcomes throughout the kindergarten year and identifies specific child bedtime activities associated with good vs. poor sleep. The third presentation broadly addresses linkages between sleep deficiencies and inconsistent sleep schedules in early childhood and children’s neural processes, learning, and academic skills. In addition, this presentation addresses the role played by the caregiving environment in impacting child sleep quality, reasons why parents over-estimate child sleep durations when compared to objective assessments, and provides advice to parents on how to optimize their children’s sleep. Overall, this symposium contributes new, cutting edge information about both the quality and timing of child sleep in predicting school readiness, and the role played by parents in promoting child sleep quality prior to and during initial school entry.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chairs

• Douglas Teti, Pennsylvania State University

• Corey Jean Whitesell, Penn State University

Individual Presentations

• Multiple Facets of Sleep Are Linked to Preschoolers’ School Readiness - Presenting Author: John Bates, Indiana University - Bloomington; Non-Presenting Author: Caroline Page Hoyniak, Indiana University - Bloomington; Non-Presenting Author: Angela D. Staples, Eastern Michigan University

• Linking Sleep with Kindergarten Functioning, and Bedtime Activities that Support Child Sleep - Presenting Author: Corey Jean Whitesell, Penn State University; Non-Presenting Author: Karen Bierman, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Orfeu M. Buxton, Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Brian Crosby, Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: David Almeida, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Kristin Sarsfield, The Pennsylvania State University; Non-Presenting Author: Douglas Teti, Pennsylvania State University

• Critical Issues for Parenting Toddlers to Sleep - Presenting Author: Victoria J Molfese, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Dennis Lee Molfese, University of Nebraska - Lincoln; Non-Presenting Author: Amanda Prokasky, University of Nebraska- Lincoln