Impaired sleep in ASD may affect early development

Sleep problems in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be associated with slowed development during early childhood, according to a new study. 

Jonah Levin and colleagues examined data collected on 8,540 young children with ASD whose parents filled out quarterly assessments for three years. Parents assessed their children’s development using five subscales (expressive language, combinatorial receptive language, sociability, sensory awareness, and health). 

The researchers say 57 percent of caregivers reported that their children had no sleep problems, while 43 percent reported mild, moderate, or severe sleep problems. Comparing 643 children with moderate or severe sleep problems to those with no sleep problems, the researchers found that “[c]hildren with no sleep problems developed faster compared to matched children with sleep problems in all subscales.” 

The greatest difference in developmental trajectories between the two groups was seen on the health subscale. When the researchers controlled for health scores as well as several other factors, the effect of sleep problems decreased for four of the subscales; however, the effect on combinatorial receptive language actually increased. The researchers say this suggests that sleep problems may impair the acquisition of combinatorial language (which involves combining sounds into meaningful words or sentences) regardless of overall health.

Citations

“Longitudinal developmental trajectories in young autistic children presenting with sleep problems, compared to those presenting without sleep problems, gathered via parent-report using a mobile application,” Jonah Levin, Edward Khokhlovich, and Andrey Vyshedskiy, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, September 2022 (online). Address: Andrey Vyshedskiy, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, [email protected].