<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Previous work demonstrates a link between poor child sleep and increased caregiver mental health symptoms. In particular, children with NGS are known to experience severe and persistent sleep difficulties. Few studies have examined the association between child sleep disturbances and caregiver internalizing symptoms across families affected by neurogenic syndromes. More specifically, no study has examined how sleep disturbances in children diagnosed with NGS impact caregiver internalizing symptoms severity across development (from infancy to school-age children), using a longitudinal framework and multilevel analyses<em>. </em>Thus, the current study aims to test the effect of child sleep duration on caregiver mental health changes over the course of development (child age, from infancy to school-age children) in a mixed cohort of families affected by neurogenetic syndromes and a sub-group of neurotypical children. <strong>Method: </strong>A total of 193 caregivers were recruited, via web-based support groups, syndrome research registries, and social networks, as part of a broader longitudinal study, the Early Phenotype Study. To measure child sleep duration and caregiver internalizing symptoms, parents completed the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, respectively, at each time point yielding a total of 718 observations. Separate multilevel models were conducted for caregiver depression, anxiety, and stress in relation to child sleep duration at the between- and the within-person level with child age as a moderator. <strong>Results: </strong>Results of the present study revealed a between-person main effect of child sleep duration on caregiver symptoms of depression and a within-person effect of child sleep duration on stress symptoms in caregivers. The moderating effect of child age was not statistically significant across models. <strong>Conclusions: </strong>Overall, findings of the current study support previous literature and suggest child sleep duration may provide us with information on who may be at greater risk of exhibiting greater symptoms of depression, drawing the importance of focusing on improving child sleep duration as a way to reduce caregiver mental health challenges. </p>

<p>Early detection and characterization of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be improved by incorporating ecologically valid methods into ASD screening and assessment, capitalizing on prospective monitoring of high-risk populations, and targeting highly informative ASD features that emerge early in development. The present study aims to address these barriers by characterizing early vocal and pre-linguistic communication features present during naturalistic behavior samples of young children with neurogenetic syndromes (NGS). Participants were 39 children aged 5-30 months diagnosed with an NGS and 39 children aged 4-26 months at low risk for developmental delays. Participants completed a daylong audio recording of child vocalizations from which measures of early vocal features (child vocalization rate, canonical babbling ratio, and pitch variability) were obtained. Participants and their mothers also completed an unstructured play-based task during which pre-linguistic communicative features (communication complexity and function) were coded. We first used Bayesian analyses to compare the early vocal and pre-linguistic communication features of children with NGS to those of children at low risk for developmental delays. Children with NGS used less canonical babble, lower communication complexity overall and for behaviors for the purposes of joint attention. Next, we conducted a cluster analysis of early vocal and pre-linguistic communication features using the full sample of NGS and low-risk participants. The selected model identified 6 clusters that were primarily differentiated by canonical babbling and communicative function. These clusters differentiated participants beyond risk status, chronological age and adaptive age. Furthermore, certain clusters reflected differences in adaptive communication and socialization skills that may be relevant to early ASD profiles. These findings suggest that canonical babble and communicative function provide meaningful information about early developmental risk and may be useful to incorporate into the ASD screening and diagnostic processes.</p>