The trajectory of children's social skill from 2 to 4 year-olds and their waking up patterns(Paper & Abstract September 17th)

Abstract

Background: Sleeping is important to children's development. There are some findings that sleep improvement of children with autism resulted in the improvement in social relatedness. Therefore sleeping patterns may be important to develop social skills. The aim of this study is to find the interaction between sleeping patterns, especially waking up patterns and social skill in healthy children. Methods: All authorized child-night-care centers and attached child-day-care facilities across Japan participated in the study when the children were two to four year-olds. Parents filled in questionnaires regarding sleeping time, and service providers evaluated the development of each child in the facility every year. Results: The trajectory of children's social skill in cooperation, self- regulation, and assertion were adopted. There was an association between cooperation and waking-up patterns, even after adjusting in gender. Conclusions: These findings show that waking-up patterns play the important roles for children's social skill. Further research is needed in order to clarify the correlation between sleeping patterns and social skill.