Sleep disorders related to the upper airway are a common reason for kids to experience sleep problems. Airway problems lead to common characteristics that sleep-wrecked kids exhibit when it comes to how they look, sounds, and behave.
In her book, Sleep Wrecked Kids: Helping Parents Raise Happy, Healthy Kids, Sharon Moore explores what counts as healthy sleep, shares techniques to help ensure your children are getting it and identifies the signs and symptoms that occur when your kids aren't.
IDENTIFYING SLEEP ISSUES IN CHILDREN
Does your child resist going to bed, wake during the night, or get up super early? Do they wake up groggy, despite sleeping for a long time? Do they snore, breathe noisily, or wake in a tangle of bedclothes?
Has your child been diagnosed with ADHD, or do they have difficulty focusing? Are they a ball of energy, and just can’t sit still? Do they get sick often?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, chances are, your child has a sleep problem.
You are not alone. Up to 40% of children have sleep problems, and these problems can start the pattern for a lifetime of health, behavior, and learning problems. On the flip side, when good sleep is the norm, kids can grow and thrive.
Good sleep is essential to helping children grow and develop properly, regulate body functions in healthy ways, and protect us from illness. As a lack of sleep can impact a child across multiple fronts, all children being evaluated for behavioral issues and disorders should be assessed for sleep disorders.
Parents have a critical role in identifying the first signs that something isn't right with their child. One of the main goals of this book is to help parents learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of sleep issues so they can discuss them with their child's pediatrician and pediatric airway dentist.
ABOUT SHARON MOORE
Sharon Moore is an author, presenter, and Speech Pathologist, with 4 decades of clinical experience across a wide range of communication and upper airway disorders. Her focus right now is sharing key research about the importance of upper airway health and sleep, in reference to the global epidemic of sleep problems.
Recently, acknowledgment of the role of Myofunctional therapy in the management of sleep disorders hails a new era of relevance for therapeutic interventions that support upper airway health and function, affirmation of her chosen clinical direction. She believes that there has never been a more important time for medical and dental colleagues to work as a team with significant health morbidities of sleep disorders in all ages now widely known.
Sharon has worked in medical clinical settings in Australia and London. Currently, she runs a Private Practice in Canberra, managing referrals from medical and dental specialists using an upper airway focussed approach, for patients of all ages and training speech pathologists in her methods. The integration of Orofacial Myofunctional principles into traditional Speech Pathology work allows a unique approach to managing upper airway disorders including breathing, swallowing, chewing, phonation, resonance & speech.
Sharon has a special interest in the early identification of craniofacial growth anomalies in non-syndromic children, airway obstruction in sleep disorders, and concomitant orofacial dysfunctions.