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This study examined the associations between sleep and challenging behaviors for average and night-to-night fluctuations in sleep, in 39 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) receiving intensive behavioral intervention (IBI). Child sleep was recorded (via actigraphy) for five nights in conjunction with clinician-reported observations of challenging behaviors. Results indicated that on average, poor sleep was associated with higher rates of repetitive behavior, negative affect, and a composite of overall challenging behaviors. These findings suggest that average sleep patterns are important within the context of IBI (rather than night-to-night fluctuations). Interventions aimed at improving overall patterns of sleep may have important cascading effects on challenging behaviors and developmental outcomes for children with ASD and their families.

Infant social-communicative behavior, such as gaze to the face of an interactive partner, is an important early developmental skill. Children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit atypicalities in social-communicative behavior, including gaze and eye contact. Behavioral differences in infancy may serve as early markers of autism spectrum disorder and help identify individuals at highest risk for developing the disorder. Researchers often assess social-communicative behavior in a single interactive context, such as during assessment with an unfamiliar examiner or play with a parent. Understanding whether infant behavior is consistent across such contexts is important for evaluating the validity of experimental paradigms and the generalizability of findings from one interactive context/partner to another. We examined infant gaze to the face of a social partner at 6, 9, and 12 months of age in infants who were later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, as well as low- and high-risk infants without autism spectrum disorder outcomes, across two interactive contexts: structured testing with an unfamiliar examiner and semi-structured play with a parent. By 9 months, infant gaze behavior was significantly associated between the two contexts. By 12 months, infants without autism spectrum disorder outcomes exhibited higher mean rates of gaze to faces during parent-child play than Mullen testing, while the gaze behavior of the autism spectrum disorder group did not differ by context--suggesting that infants developing autism spectrum disorder may be less sensitive to context or interactive partner. Findings support the validity of assessing infant social-communicative behavior during structured laboratory settings and suggest that infant behavior exhibits consistency across settings and interactive partners.

The Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) is often used to assess sleep in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but little is known about its factor structure in younger children with ASD. We evaluated alternative factor structures and measurement invariance for CSHQ items in 2- to 4-year-olds with ASD or typical development (TD). Bifactor models indicated subscales' variance was subsumed by a general factor predominantly reflecting sleep initiation and nighttime awakening items. A factor consisting of 7 of these items was measurement invariant across ASD and TD. Thus, comparisons between young children with ASD and TD is appropriate for a measure composed of 7 CSHQ items relating to sleep initiation and awakenings but not for other CSHQ item composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies designed to assess the efficacy of behavioral sleep interventions for infants and young children often report sleep improvements, but the generalization to children and families of diverse backgrounds is rarely assessed. The present study describes a systematic review of the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of behavioral sleep intervention studies for young children. Thirty-two behavioral sleep intervention studies (5474 children) were identified using PRISMA guidelines. Each study was coded for racial and ethnic composition, parental educational attainment (an index of socioeconomic resources), and country of origin. Racial or ethnic information was obtained for 19 studies (60%). Study participants were primarily White and from predominantly White countries. Overall, 21 (66%) of the included studies provided information on parental education. Most of these studies had samples with moderate to high educational attainment. Behavioral sleep intervention studies to date include samples with insufficient diversity. Overall, this study highlights a critical gap in pediatric sleep intervention research and supports a call to further include families from diverse backgrounds when assessing behavioral sleep interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the associations between sleep and challenging behaviors for average and night-to-night fluctuations in sleep, in 39 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) receiving intensive behavioral intervention (IBI). Child sleep was recorded (via actigraphy) for five nights in conjunction with clinician-reported observations of challenging behaviors. Results indicated that on average, poor sleep was associated with higher rates of repetitive behavior, negative affect, and a composite of overall challenging behaviors. These findings suggest that average sleep patterns are important within the context of IBI (rather than night-to-night fluctuations). Interventions aimed at improving overall patterns of sleep may have important cascading effects on challenging behaviors and developmental outcomes for children with ASD and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infant social-communicative behavior, such as gaze to the face of an interactive partner, is an important early developmental skill. Children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit atypicalities in social-communicative behavior, including gaze and eye contact. Behavioral differences in infancy may serve as early markers of autism spectrum disorder and help identify individuals at highest risk for developing the disorder. Researchers often assess social-communicative behavior in a single interactive context, such as during assessment with an unfamiliar examiner or play with a parent. Understanding whether infant behavior is consistent across such contexts is important for evaluating the validity of experimental paradigms and the generalizability of findings from one interactive context/partner to another. We examined infant gaze to the face of a social partner at 6, 9, and 12 months of age in infants who were later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, as well as low- and high-risk infants without autism spectrum disorder outcomes, across two interactive contexts: structured testing with an unfamiliar examiner and semi-structured play with a parent. By 9 months, infant gaze behavior was significantly associated between the two contexts. By 12 months, infants without autism spectrum disorder outcomes exhibited higher mean rates of gaze to faces during parent–child play than Mullen testing, while the gaze behavior of the autism spectrum disorder group did not differ by context—suggesting that infants developing autism spectrum disorder may be less sensitive to context or interactive partner. Findings support the validity of assessing infant social-communicative behavior during structured laboratory settings and suggest that infant behavior exhibits consistency across settings and interactive partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]