Poor sleep quality in babies – how much does it matter? Said to be linked to speech development

Infancy and early childhood are the most rapid periods of physical and mental development. The brain is in a state of rapid development and the psychological development is also qualitatively developing during this period, so neuropsychological development is most crucial during this period.Sunshine Language teachers remind parents that most of the neuropsychological developmental screening problems in children under the age of 3 are related to the timing and regularity of sleep. Adequate sleep time helps children to have better attention, cognitive function, emotional regulation and behaviour.

For preschool children, sleep is an important dynamic process. However, many sleep disorders such as sleep deprivation, difficulty falling asleep, episodic sleep disorder, odd sleep patterns, sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) and periodic limb movement disorder are more prevalent in preschool children. Transient sleep problems may also impede the development of self-regulatory functions and associated neural circuits in children.

Many young children who do not meet the criteria are commonly screened by the Wechsler scale for sleep disturbances, with behavioural manifestations such as sleep impedance and sleep anxiety. In addition, poor sleep and low mental status affect preschoolers’ memory skills as well as their social skills. Emotional behavioural problems become more severe; and pro-social behaviour becomes less and less frequent. In the long term, sleep disorders affect the neurological maturation of the brain in the short term, and also affect cognitive, memory, language and behavioural skills in the long term.

Problems such as poor sleep quality are common in children with language delays, as sleep departures from normal patterns in young children occur most often in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, suggesting that abnormal sleep patterns are a feature of immature or impaired brain development in children. Research into the neural mechanisms of language has shown that language signals are perceived by the visual organ, the eye, and the auditory organ, the ear, and then input to the centre, where they are processed, analysed, stored and encoded by the central language processing analyser, and then neurologically transmitted to govern the speech motor organs, the pharynx, the larynx and the tongue, for verbal expression.

If any one of these three components is not functioning properly, a speech disorder will result. The basic function of the brain is to receive, process and make decisions about all kinds of information. Many children with speech and language delays have difficulty sleeping and lack of sleep quality, which may indicate abnormalities in the brain’s cognitive information processing or in the control and synergistic output of post-decisional effectors.

Develop a sleep intervention plan for you.

1. Strictly limit the intake of caffeine and carbonated beverages at all times, control the amount of time spent watching electronics at bedtime, plan bedtime study time, and prohibit excessive eating and exercise at bedtime.

2. Bedtime routine: Help children to create a set of “Bedtime Routine Charts” and “Wake Up Routine Charts” and supervise parents and children to follow them strictly. The content of the charts can begin with parents and children choosing their own bedtime and wake-up activities, such as completing early morning activities such as brushing teeth together and getting dressed and breakfast; parents controlling children’s activities for 20-40min before lights out, and parents prohibiting children from strenuous activities and stopping interaction with children when lights out and bedtime.

Parents and children agree in advance to reward children with small “star” icons according to their completion status, and to reward children with large “sun” icons when they have completed all the tasks on the program chart each day. When the child has collected 7 large “sun” icons, the child will be rewarded by buying a favourite toy or going on a trip to meet the child’s wishes.

3. Sleeping environment: Children should sleep in a dark, quiet environment with a comfortable temperature. If parents need to accompany children to bed or to sleep in the same room, try not to use electronic products before children go to sleep.

4, sleep time: try to maintain a regular sleep schedule, so sleep correction behavior pay more attention to the preschool weekdays, weekends 5, the fixation of sleep time, the difference between the two try to less than half an hour, to develop good sleep habits.

After reading these above, I believe that parents can pay attention to the baby’s sleep problems, do not think that the baby is asleep, must help the baby to get high quality sleep, in order to make the baby more healthy.