Examining sleep disturbances of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and parental behaviours related to these disturbances

The current research is a descriptive study examining the sleep problems of children with autism spectrum disorders and their parents' behaviors regarding these problems. Data were collected from a total of 804 participants using the data collection tool titled "Parents' Behaviors Regarding Sleep Problems of Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder". Findings show that behavioral sleep problems are common in individuals with ASD and that these problems become chronic. It is also possible to infer that parents do not take any initiative to solve these problems or do not carry out a planned practice. In addition to the fact that parents do not use practices such as ignoring, sleep restriction, or stimulus fading, it is seen that they do not sufficiently reinforce their children's appropriate sleep-related behaviors, on the contrary, they tend to reinforce inappropriate behaviors. When the sleep hygiene features are evaluated in terms of physical conditions; it can be said that sleep environments largely have positive features for sleep. The data collection tool used in the study can be the first comprehensive Turkish data collection tool that evaluates the sleep problems of children with ASD in terms of behavioral characteristics. This tool can be used to identify the sleep problems of individuals with ASD, parental behaviors or physical/environmental conditions that may cause these problems to arise or continue, and based on these, to determine the appropriate behavioral interventions to use to solve these problems and to prepare family education programs. Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder, Sleep disturbances, Behavioral practices, Parent behaviors