Sleep behaviour relates to language skills in children with and without communication disorders

Abstract

Background: Sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is also emerging evidence that sleep quality influences language learning in typical development. However, there is a gap within the literature in regards to sleep and developmental language disorder in children (DLD).Objectives: The aims of this study were to: (i) compare sleep patterns of children with communication disorders to the sleep patterns of their typical peers, and (ii) ascertain whether sleep patterns related to language in this sample.Method: The relationship between sleep and language was investigated via parental questionnaires. There were 65 child participants in total aged between 3 and 18 years. Parents reported on 28 children with a developmental communication disorder (CD; ASD n = 8 or DLD n = 20) and 37 who were typical developing.Results: The children with a developmental communication disorder showed more sleep problems than their typical peers particularly in terms of getting to sleep and early waking. Furthermore, significant correlations were found between sleep behavior and language for children in both groups.Conclusion: Children with CD may have poorer sleep patterns than their typical peers which could compound developmental language difficulties.