Autism Soccer: Sleep Problems

Showing posts with label Sleep Problems. Show all posts

Friday, July 27, 2018

Good Night's Sleep: Guide for Parents!

Any underlying problem may be affecting sleep: from allergies, environmental intolerances, to the medications the child takes.

Most parents have difficulties with their children at bedtime. In children, the problems for sleeping are a common phase in their development. But, if these problems persist, they can have adverse effects on the child, the parents, and even other family members. Children with ASD seem to have these problems for sleeping more frequent and even more intense than neurotypical children. Bedtime can become a daily challenge for parents.

First of all, you should identify the reason for the child having trouble sleeping. Consider allergies or food intolerances, gastrointestinal problems, and seizures, or even the environment. All of these can occur in people with ASD. These problems may also be caused by medications and their side effects.

Environmental Variables

Maybe the environment where your child sleeps is being uncomfortable for him or her. You may need to make some adaptations, so the child can relax at bedtime.

Temperature. Consider if the child is very hot or cold. Examine the temperature of the room, sleeping clothes or bed.

Noise. Consider noises that may be affecting your child. In the process of sleeping, the sounds that your child hears can be impossible to ignore. Some children within the autism spectrum disorders may prefer dark places during the day, but that’s very different from sleeping in a large dark room at night. Street lights, the moon, or car lights that illuminate the room at intermittent intervals can affect your child's sleep.

Bedtime Routines

Establishing a bedtime routine is a good way to generate a positive pattern in the child's sleep. However, the children with ASD they are extremely critical.

If you set a fixed time to go to bed, your child will benefit from that. Choose a reasonable time for your child and you to begin to apply a routine sleep system.

A bedtime routine can help the child to calm down, relax and prepare to rest. This routine should include activities that are pleasurable and relaxing, as well as special and individualized that fit the needs and interests of your child. Read a story, go to the bathroom, put on the pajamas, brushing teeth, have a glass of water, sing a favorite song or pray, listen to relaxing music or participate in a relaxed sensory integration activity.

In children within an autism spectrum disorder, it’s very common to have problems with sleeping. These bad sleeping habits are easily created and difficult to change. It can take time to solve this problem, but the family must do their part, so these routines and these changes have good results. A priority that deserves effort!

Routines and bedtime rituals are essential for most children to establish positive patterns in sleep, but they are extremely critical for children within the autism spectrum disorder.

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Monday, May 8, 2017

Severe Autism: A Challenge for Parents

Children with severe autism have a hard time expressing their emotions, causing stress and anger episodes to occur.

On the autism spectrum, there are many differences in symptoms between one child and another; this is why the “spectrum” is part of the definition of this disorder. There are many variations and levels of autism which go from children with communication disabilities to others who don’t express their emotions at all.

For those kids on the disorder, “Severe Autism” is not a diagnosed result or a category of children with autism, the use of this term is mainly for giving details on the level of disorder and functioning in the kids. This term also represents how much support and assistance the children need to be able to carry out daily activities in their lives.

Children with severe autism need full aid and support for most of their actions; their disabilities are higher when compared to less severe children with this disorder. Their communication is almost non-existent, and in most of the cases they’re unable to speak in an intelligible way, and most of them make scream-like sounds in an attempt to express themselves.

Sounds, light, touch, smell and taste are severely dysfunctional for them, making little sounds or overwhelming disturbances. This sensory dysfunction affects their perception of reality seriously, and most of the children space out when exposed to situations that disturb their senses.

The physical symptoms commonly shown in children with autism like lack of sleep, mood disorders, and eating habits are present in severe autism too. These are often confused with normal behaviors or unapparent signs of autism, but they are part of the disorder as well, affecting them just as the severe versions of the symptoms shared by autistic children.

The Autism Spectrum is not yet fully understood as it stills manages to impress experts with the variety of characteristics a person can show that are still in the category of this spectrum disorder. Parents need to be aware of the level of autism their children can have and act accordingly by following the specifications of the specialists. Autism Soccer has children from all the levels of autism, and with more than four years of experience in the matter, they’re up to the task. Contact them for more information.

Early depression can occur in children with severe autism, making this a matter of concern for parents.

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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Autistic Dreams: Make a Sleep Journal

It's common that autistic kids have a hard time to sleep properly, get them to an expert inmediately.

Sleep behavior in kids is already complicated as a standalone; kids tend to stay up until late hours at night playing games, running around or watching TV. No matter the causes of the lack of sleep, kids are very active in general. In order to create a sleep time routine, rules must be set and there’s a chance the kid won’t accept them at first. Eventually, it will become a custom to sleep at a set hour at nights and to wake up early.

With the case of special needs children, things can be more challenging for parents as ASD children have a bigger chance of developing sleeping disorders at a young age (between 40%-80% of the cases). This is not only a concern for the kids, but for the parents and family as well. There are many theories to explain the lack of sleep in autistic kids, but the main reason is believed to be the fact that they’re highly sensitive to stimuli during sleep, making any noise an interruption.

These sleep patterns are hard to deal with since the reason for that sensibility can’t be cured. Treatment would be a good idea depending on the extension of the spectrum, so checking a specialist would be the best decision. Lack of sleep affects the brain in severe ways, and it’s even worse if it’s a young kid because of the fact that he’s growing. Kids who usually have interrupted dream-time develop these conditions: bad mood or aggression, poor learning skills, depression, and even worse behavioral problems.

Making a sleep journal for your kids could be an alternate solution to help them out. As the kids wake up, ask details about their sleep; if they slept well and had dreams, or if they woke up several times during the night and mostly anything that can be written down helps. The reason of this is to keep track of how often they sleep. That’s something important to have when going to therapists, as they use this information to provide guidelines and better strategies for the kids. There are some other options you can follow for the sake of your kids:

Create the habit of sleeping: Try to establish a time for sleeping and make sure the kids get used to it.
Put some soft music: Try some music in the room to relax your children, read a book for him or tell a story.
Turn any distraction off: Anything like the TV or the video games.
Avoid sugar and sweets: This is a no-no before going to bed.

Not having any sleep does no good, and leaves children tired and irritable during the day; do the best to help them out. Take them to a pediatrician to check on them. If you put them to practice some sports, their mind will be distracted while making exercise, that’ll sure get them tired when they return home. With Autism Soccer, you’ll have that covered, they do the best to help special needs children in their growth while practicing and learning in a team.