A Behavior Analytic Framework for Fading Dependencies and Teaching Independent Sleep
Ready Set Sleep and Hi Rasmus are hosted a two-part webinar series on sleep in autism services. Part 2 is presented by Emily Varon, MS, BCBA, of Ready Set Sleep and Juliane Morawski, MA, BCBA, LBA, CBSP, of Hi Rasmus.
Night wakings are the sleep concern families raise most often, and for many providers this is the point where a sleep plan starts to feel out of reach. Part 2 picks up where Part 1 left off. Once sleep timing is stable and a routine is in place, the open question is what a child needs present in order to fall back asleep in the middle of the night.
The presenters walk through what a typical night of sleep looks like and how to tell a sustainable sleep dependency from a deficient one that isn’t serving the learner. They cover skills you can work on with a learner during the day, since healthy separation in the daytime supports independent sleep. They also take on common sleep myths and look at screen time and the mechanisms behind it. The session closes with a readiness checklist to review before teaching independent sleep, plus low response effort data collection considerations for tired caregivers who are carrying out the plan.
What You’ll Learn About Independent Sleep in ABA
- Describe what happens in the middle of the night
- Distinguish sustainable from deficient sleep dependencies
- Explain screen time and the mechanisms behind it
- Teach healthy separation during the day, and explain why the bedroom isn’t only for sleep
- Review the readiness checklist before teaching independent sleep
- Apply low response effort data collection and describe organization-wide outcomes
If you missed Part 1, the recording is available here.
The accompanying hand-out can be found here.
