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Sleep Disturbance and Expressive Language Development in Preschool‐Age Children With Down Syndrome
Author(s) -
Edgin Jamie O.,
Tooley Ursula,
Demara Bianca,
Nyhuis Casandra,
Anand Payal,
Spanò Goffredina
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12443
Subject(s) - psychology , language development , developmental psychology , sleep disorder , disturbance (geology) , sleep (system call) , child development , expressive language , language acquisition , cognition , psychiatry , mathematics education , computer science , operating system , paleontology , biology
Recent evidence has suggested that sleep may facilitate language learning. This study examined variation in language ability in 29 toddlers with Down syndrome ( DS ) in relation to levels of sleep disruption. Toddlers with DS and poor sleep (66%, n = 19) showed greater deficits on parent‐reported and objective measures of language, including vocabulary and syntax. Correlations between sleep and language were found in groups with equivalent medical and social backgrounds and after control for relevant behavioral comorbidities, including autism symptoms. These results emphasize the important role of quality sleep in all children's expressive language development, and may help increase our understanding of the etiology of language deficits in developmental disorders, potentially leading to new treatment approaches.