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Working towards making sleep in Children with Down syndrome better
October 7 @ 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Almost all children with Down syndrome will experience sleep problems during childhood.
However, sleep is not often a priority for management, with the focus being on other more acute medical problems. Studies have shown that children with Down syndrome who also have sleep problems have poorer outcomes and family functioning can be significantly affected by poor sleep in the child with Down syndrome. This talk will discuss all things related to sleep in children with Down syndrome. The talk aims to describe some of the challenges faced by families when seeking treatment for sleep, referring to research that has been undertaken in Queensland around improving evaluation and treatment of sleep in children with Down syndrome.
Associate Professor Jasneek Chawla
Associate Professor Jasneek Chawla is a Paediatric Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Specialist at Queensland Children’s Hospital, Brisbane and leads the Kids Sleep Research Group at the Child Health Research Centre, University of Queensland. Her research interests include sleep in children with complex disability and the development of novel measurement tools for paediatric sleep medicine. A/Prof Chawla holds a Children’s Hospital Foundation, Early Career Fellowship and is leading a multi-centre MRFF funded study focused on improving the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders in children with neurodisability. Her PhD work focused on sleep problems in children with Down syndrome and provided the foundations for her ongoing research and forged a strong connection with Down syndrome Queensland and Down syndrome Australia. A/Prof Chawla is a board director for the Australian Sleep Association and is chair of the Education Committee and deputy chair of the conference committee. She is a strong advocate for children with disability and chronic illness and collaborates widely with many consumer representative organisations and individuals with lived experience through her research.