Schedule by Day

Day 1 - Monday, Feb 20, 2023

Using Coaching Tools to Empower Parents and Enhance Client Experience

By Andrea Strang

Applying life coaching tools in sleep and parent coaching provides an opportunity to connect with clients on a deeper level and inspire them to reach their goals easier and faster. Coaching tools increase parental self-efficacy and confidence while reducing stress and promoting mental health.

In this session, we will discuss the how, when, and why of using life coaching tools in supporting parents to reach their sleep goals. You will be introduced to motivational interviewing and coaching tools to use at various stages of the coaching process to overcome hurdles, get parental buy in, and empower parents with more than better sleep.

Also join us live for our coaching engagement sessions where you will have an opportunity to experience and practice coaching tools firsthand.

Live Q&A with Andrea Strang

Afternoon Engagement Session: Sleeposium Kick Off Mixer

Join us for some fun networking and community connection as we kick off Sleeposium2023

Day 2 - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2023

Understanding Nap Patterns and Nap Transitions in Early Childhood

By Rebecca Spencer

Between infancy and early childhood, there are a number of nap transitions as sleep is consolidated from many sleep bouts across the day to a single overnight sleep bout by around 5 years of age. Nap transitions can be a point of particular stress for parents and caregivers. In infants, fussiness could signal need for sleep or a myriad of other states. In childhood, negative temperament at nap time associated with learning boundaries can be confused with a nap transition. As such, it is important to understand nap transitions and provide guidance for parents and caregivers to align expectations around sleep with child sleep need.

Recent research from my lab and others has shed light on the function of naps and mechanisms that underly these transitions. At a young age, children are constantly learning and naps are critical to protect and enhance memories. Nap transitions are predicted by brain development. Specifically, as memory areas of the brain develop, there is less need for frequent sleep.

In this session, I will review this science behind nap transitions and how the qualities of sleep changes across nap transitions. Importantly, I will also discuss the implication of these findings for sleep decisions made by parents, providers, and clinicians.

Live Q&A with Rebecca Spencer

Afternoon Engagement Session: Coaching Session

Join us for daily experiential sessions focused on engagement, implementation, and fun. This year we will be exploring sleep products, gentle sleep strategies, and experiencing coaching and motivational interviewing strategies first-hand.

How Sensory Processing Differences Can Affect Sleep - And What to Do About It

By Kaili Ets

This training will help understand how our sensory systems can affect all areas of our lives, sleep included. We've all had those clients who are so active during the day and before bed and just can't seem to calm down, nurse for hours at night, need mom or dad's body right next to them or they wake up, or just seem so restless during the night that you wonder if they are getting restorative sleep. These things might be due to sensory processing differences and understanding why these might happen and how to support our clients is very important. This training will give you some additional 'tools in your sleep toolbox' that you can pass on to families to better support them and their babies.

Day 3 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023

A Holistic & Developmental Lens for Viewing Behavioural Sleep Problems in Children

By Maisie Ruttan

Many parents experience challenges with sleep when their children are babies, and there is a growing amount of support and literature to help families navigate this tricky time. The assumption for many, is that their child will slowly start to sleep better as they grow and develop. The reality however, is that almost all children will experience difficulties with sleep at some point.

The most common sleep challenges in early childhood such as difficulty initiating sleep (refusals, resistance and delayed sleep onset) and maintaining sleep (night awakenings and insomnia) are generally seen as being in behavioural nature. When seeking professional support, parents are told to turn off screens, and put them to bed earlier, following a strict bedtime routine. Following this, behavioural interventions such as systematic ignoring (extinction variations) and positive reinforcement strategies (sticker charts) are a mainstay of treatment.

When changes to the sleep schedule, environment and routine don’t work, parents are left feeling frustrated, confused and wondering what they’ve done wrong. In this presentation, we will take a closer look at current “best practice” recommendations and how this fits with what we know about authoritative (gentle) parenting, and child development. I will offer a different lens, that considers both brain development and sleep, that you can use to support parents through common childhood sleep challenges.

Live Q&A with Maisie Ruttan

Afternoon Engagement Session: With Special Guest Irene Gouge

Join us for daily experiential sessions focused on engagement, implementation, and fun. This year we will be exploring sleep products, gentle sleep strategies, and experiencing coaching and motivational interviewing strategies first-hand.

Gentle Strategies for Better Sleep

By Tracy Spackman

In this interactive session, Tracy will share a review of gentle sleep strategies and lead a fun discussion about utilizing various strategies in supporting families.

Day 4 - Thursday, Feb 23, 2023

Bonus Check-in with Andrea Strang

What’s New in Infant Sleep Safety?

By Helen Ball

This talk will explore how infant sleep safety guidance varies (particularly between the US and the UK) and explains how SIDS guidance in the UK has been updated to accommodate the needs of culturally diverse families and acknowledge the benefits to mothers and babies of sleeping together while providing information about hazards to avoid. New ways of working with vulnerable families at greatest risk of SIDS and accidental infant deaths during sleep will be shared, together with responses of parents and practitioners to these new approaches.

We will also explore how the latest bed-sharing research is being used to develop new policies for staff and guidance for parents including new international protocols such as those from the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine.

Participants will gain insight into how research findings inform policy and practice; understand how infant sleep issues are addressed in different locations and increase their knowledge of risk minimisation approaches to safer infant sleep.

Live Q&A with Helen Ball

Afternoon Engagement Session: Coaching Session

Join us for daily experiential sessions focused on engagement, implementation, and fun. This year we will be exploring sleep products, gentle sleep strategies, and experiencing coaching and motivational interviewing strategies first-hand.

How Temperament Affects Sleep, Sleep Coaching, and Everything Else

By Macall Gordon

Temperament—not behavior—may be the deciding factor in whether a child sleeps well or not. We’ll talk about the unique characteristics of children with more sensitive/reactive temperaments and the challenges that it presents for sleep behavior and parenting. This talk will look at existing research on temperament and sleep, and I’ll discuss my research based on information from 850 parents about how temperament relates to experiences with sleep and parenting. We’ll also discuss how to approach parents’ sleep questions with temperament strengths and challenges in mind.

Day 5 - Friday, Feb 24, 2023

Using Light To Improve Sleep (plus Energy, Focus, Motivation and more!)

By Carrie Bennett

Buried in natural light are different frequencies (colors) that interact with our physiology in key ways. Specifically, there are wavelengths of morning light that can promote high quality sleep. This presentation will discuss what those wavelengths are, how they improve sleep and the exact ways to get those wavelengths on a regular basis.

Live Q&A with Carrie Bennett

Farewell Party & Prize Giveaways

Join us as we wrap up Sleeposium2023 with some fun games and prizes!