Sleep is linked to language skills in neuro developmental disorders

The study is the first to examine the relationship between children with Down syndrome, Fragile X and Williams.

16 de enero de 2020

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Universidad Anglia Ruskin

New research has found that Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and Williams syndrome are linked to sleep disruption in very young children, and that sleep plays a crucial role in developing children's language skills children.

Led by Dr. Dean D'Souza of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and published in the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities, it is the first crossover syndrome study to examine sleep and the relationship between sleep and language, in children very small with these neurodevelopmental disorders. Together with colleagues from the University of Cambridge; Birkbeck, University of London; The LonDownS Consortium, London; Semmelweis University, Budapest; and the University of Oxford; Dr. D'Souza compared the vocabulary size and sleep patterns of 75 infants and toddlers with one of these neurodevelopmental disorders along with 30 normally developing children of the same age. The researchers found that sleep was disrupted among children with all three neurodevelopmental disorders. On average, typically developing children slept about 50 minutes longer per night than those with a neurodevelopmental disorder. They also spent less time awake at night. While typically developing children spent only three minutes awake per night on average, children with a neurodevelopmental disorder were awake for about 30 more minutes.

The study also found that the longer babies and toddlers with Down syndrome and Williams syndrome slept at night, the more words they knew. For every additional 10 minutes of sleep, these children would understand the meaning of six additional words. Researchers were unable to assess this relationship with children with fragile X syndrome due to limited sample size. The children were assessed using a list of 416 words commonly acquired in early childhood, with the caregiver indicating whether their child can "understand" or "understand and say" the word. Only one of the 75 children with a neurodevelopmental disorder could understand, but not say, all 416 words. This child was 47 months old and had Williams syndrome. Nine of the 30 typically developing children (30%) were able to understand and say all 416 words.

Dr D'Souza, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Children with neurodevelopmental disorders often have difficulties with language development. Many different factors can contribute to this, and our study is based on focused on the role of sleep.This is because sleep is important for learning and memory, and people with neurodevelopmental disorders often report having trouble sleeping. "Our research shows that sleep is disrupted very early in development through various neurodevelopmental disorders, and the indications are that this is contributing to language learning difficulties."

"More research is needed to explore whether early interventions to improve the sleep patterns of children with Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and Williams syndrome would be as beneficial for their language skills as interventions later in their development that specifically target to language learning ".

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Materials provided by Anglia Ruskin University. Note: Content can be edited for style and length. Journal reference: Dean D'Souza, Hana D’Souza, Klára Horváth, Kim Plunkett, Annette Karmiloff-Smith. Sleep is atypical in neurodevelopmental disorders in infants and young children: a crossover syndrome study.

Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2020; 97: 103549 DOI: 10.1016 / j.ridd.2019.103549 Story Source: Materials provided by Anglia Ruskin University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference: Dean D'Souza, Hana D’Souza, Klára Horváth, Kim Plunkett, Annette Karmiloff-Smith. Sleep is atypical across neurodevelopmental disorders in infants and toddlers:

A cross-syndrome study. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2020; 97: 103549 DOI: 10.1016 / j.ridd.2019.103549