Sleep and Self-Regulation
In searching for background research on my topic-the effects of sleep on self-regulation-I am asking myself: Am I doing all that I can as an early childhood practitioner to create an environment and schedule that meets the needs of individual children?
Trying to narrow down articles for the literature review was challenging. I wanted to read the most current research that related to my topic. I found a research project from 1998 that asked nearly the same question that I am asking and hypothesized a stong correlation between sleep in a 24 hour period and behavior problems. As I searched for more current research, I found projects that compared multiple indicators of regulation disorders, one contributing factor being sleep.
I am focused on hours of sleep, wanting to keep the research simple. Many of research projects I read were addressing diagnosed sleep disorders. The limitations discussed in the conclusions repeatedly expressed the unreliability of having to use parent reported data as a method of collecting sleep information and determining behavior problems (reduced self-regulation). I am wondering what methods I might use to improve the reliability of data.
What I see as original in my simulation is the participation of childcare practitioners in reporting self-regulation data. I will still be relying on parents to contribute hours of night time sleep achieved. An unknown factor I have not figured to control is the quality of that sleep.
Parents and children will benefit from the research if it is determined that behavior challenges that occur as a result of low self-regulation can be diminished by providing young children with adequate amounts of routine, uninterupted sleep.
Resource to Share: Washington State University Extension Service is offering a free webinar: (here is the email alert I received.) Multiculturalism: Dr. Marcelo Diversi
WSU Vancouver, Monday, December 3, 2012, 11 am – 12:30 pm Pacific Standard Time
We will examine acculturation from the intersection of nature and nurture. I will cover recent research from cognitive and evolutionary sciences relevant to identity formation, our universal tribal tendencies, and cultural clash. I will also present well-established research on acculturation processes from cross-cultural psychology that examines diversity within cultural groups and 4 different acculturation styles that tend to emerge from the early phases of migration. We will then apply the proposed acculturation model to scenarios introduced by participants and/or myself.
Marcelo Diversi is an Associate Professor of Human Development at Washington State University Vancouver. He received his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1998 and held faculty positions at the University of Missouri and Utah State University before moving to Washington in 2006. His scholarship has focused on youth growing up at dehumanizing margins of democratic societies, from children living in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to undocumented Latino youth in northern Utah to homeless and foster youth in Clark County. His current research is examining the effects of indigenous peoples’ forced removal from their native lands on community and family systems. He is the author of several journal articles, book chapters, and an award winning co-authored book on decolonization.
This seminar is free. Registration is required. Registration is limited to 100 people. The registration deadline is November 29, 2012 at noon, Pacific Time. You will be notified on November 30th with a confirmation and the URL for the webinar.
Please go to : www.surveymonkey.com/parentingedweb3 <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/parentingedweb3> to register.
If you have questions, please contact the webinar coordinator Drew Betz at betz@wsu.edu.
Drew Lenore Betz, M.S., Certified Family Life Educator
Faculty and Director
WSU Whatcom County Extension
1000 No. Forest, Suite 201
Bellingham, WA 98225
360-676-6736http://whatcom.wsu.edu
betz@wsu.edu
