Child Sleep and Socioeconomic Context in the Development of Cognitive Abilities in Early Childhood

Despite a robust literature examining the association between sleep problems and cognitive abilities in childhood, little is known about this association in toddlerhood, a period of rapid cognitive development. The present study examined the association between various sleep problems, using actigraphy, and performance on a standardized test of cognitive abilities, longitudinally across three ages (30, 36, and 42 months) in a large sample of toddlers (N = 493). Results revealed a between-subject effect in which the children who had more delayed sleep schedules on average also showed poorer cognitive abilities on average but did not support a within-subjects effect. Results also showed that delayed sleep explains part of the association between family socioeconomic context and child cognitive abilities.     

The precarious existence of the academic development unit

Abstract

With increasing numbers and types of students, more flexible courses and technological innovation, there is a growing need to understand the student experience in detail, and to gain a clear, unbiased account of the effects of course design and delivery on their learning. At the same time, academic staff are increasingly under pressure to be active researchers, to teach more students and to quality‐assure their practice. Within this context there is a growing need for educational and staff development which is both effective in supporting academic staff and promoting innovative course design and yet efficient in the use of scarce resources. In this difficult context a great deal is asked of a professional academic development service. How best can such a service be offered? What should the basic service consist of?

In this paper we advocate an approach to academic development which we have called Consultancy Style Action Research (CSAR). We introduce the rationale and background to the development of CSARand briefly describe one case example. We go on to discuss the contribution of this approach to developing the developers.