The current research considered parent report of sleep problems in children with an intellectual disability (ID). Of specific interest were parents who reported child sleep issues/disturbances but who did not consider their child to have a sleep problem. Also of interest was the use of a general parent-training program to treat both the sleep and behaviour problems in children with an ID. Study 1 examined parent perceptions regarding sleep in children with an ID. Parents who reported a child sleep problem provided information on the types of sleep treatment tried and rated their effectiveness. Overall, 243 questionnaires were completed by parents of children with a range of disabilities aged between 3.1 to 18.7 years. While 62% of parents rated their child as displaying problematic night settling, night waking, early waking, or other disturbing sleep behaviours, only 27% of parents considered their child to have a sleep problem. A higher number of parents (75%) than expected had tried at least one type of intervention, although it was not possible to discern 'self help' treatments from 'professionally sought' treatments. Study 2 investigated child and parent factors associated with parent perception of sleep problems in children with an ID. Seventy-six parents from Study 1 completed measures in relation to child adaptive and daytime behaviour, parent stress, locus of control, personality (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism), parenting competence, and perceived control over the child's sleep and daytime behaviour. Based on parent report on a sleep measure and response to the question 'do you think your child has a sleep problem' parents were allocated into one of three sleep groups: Parents who recognised a sleep problem (RSP, N=20), parents whose child did not have a sleep problem (NSP, N=35), and parents who did not recognise their child to have a sleep problem (USP, N=21). The results revealed differences between parents who do (RSP) and parents who do not (USP) recognise their child's sleep problem. These differences related to amount of child sleep (as reported by parents) and parent perceived control over the child's sleep and daytime behaviour. Study 3 examined the efficacy of a general parent-training (behaviour management) program, with sleep used as the training exemplar, for the treatment of sleep problems in children with an ID. Of the 20 parents in the RSP group in Study 2, five agreed to take part in Study 3 and three completed the intervention. The effect of the intervention on (a) a targeted sleep problem, (b) a targeted behaviour problem, (c) other sleep and daytime behaviours, (d) parent stress, (e) parent sleep, (f) parent sense of competence, and (g) parent perceived control over the child's sleep and daytime behaviour were examined. All parents reported an improvement in target sleep behaviour, and at follow-up all of the parents no longer considered their child to have a sleep problem. One parent reported a decrease in stress and an increase in measures of perceived control, and parenting competence, while two parents showed minimal to no improvement on child and parent outcomes.

Under de senaste trettio åren, har antalet flerspråkiga individer ökat i Sverige betydligt. Antalet flerspråkiga barn i behov av en noggrann språklig undersökning är därmed stort. Det råder dessutom en generell brist på språkliga bedömningsmaterial för flerspråkiga barn i Sverige. Somalier utgör en stor del av den flerspråkiga gruppen i Sverige, vilket motiverar behovet av ett språkligt instrument för denna population. En översättning till somaliska av föräldraskattningsformuläret The Swedish Communicative Development Inventory (SCDI-III) har därför skapats. SCDI-III är en anpassning av MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI) och är utformat för att via föräldraskattning undersöka tal- och språkförmågan hos barn mellan 2;6–4;0 år. Ett antal språkspecifika korrigeringar har gjorts från svenska SCDI-III till den somaliska versionen för en bättre anpassning till det somaliska språket. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att pröva den somaliska översatta versionen av SCDI-III. Totalt tio somalisktalande vårdnadshavare inkluderades i studien. Deltagarna rekryterades via barnavårdscentraler, förskolor samt genom privata kontakter. Resultatet i föreliggande studie visar att deltagarnas inlämnade frågeformulär var ofullständigt ifyllda. Ingen samstämmighet avseende vilka sektioner av instrumentet som inte besvarades kunde iakttas. Dessutom noterades inga korrelationer mellan bakgrundsvariablerna och hur vårdnadshavarna svarade. På grund av det låga deltagarantalet, i kombination med ovan nämnda faktorer, kan inga slutsatser om huruvida instrumentet är användbart för gruppen somaliska vårdnadshavare i Sverige dras. Sannolikt behöver instrumentet revideras och prövas igen, innan det kan användas kliniskt. / Over the last thirty years the number of multilingual individuals has significantly increased in Sweden. Consequently, there are several multilingual children in need of a detailed language assessment. At the same time, there is a general lack of tools for assessing speech and language in multilingual children in Sweden. People from Somalia are a substantial part of the multilingual community in Sweden, which motivates a need for a language assessment tool for this population. A translation of the parent-report instrument The Swedish Communicative Development Inventory (SCDI-III) to Somali has been made. The SCDI-III is an adapted version from the MacArthurBates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI). The instrument is designed to investigate the speech and language ability of children between 2;6–4;0 years via parental reports. In order to develop a better adaption to the Somali language, a number of language-specific revisions have been made from the Swedish SCDI-III to the Somali version. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the Somali translated version of SCDIIII. A total of ten Somali-speaking caretakers were included in the study. The participants were recruited through child-care centers, preschools and private contacts. The results of the present study show that the participants' submitted questionnaires were incomplete. No common patterns as to which sections that were incomplete could be identified, nor could any correlations between any of the background information items and incomplete sections be found. Due to the low number of participants, in combination with the above-mentioned factors, no conclusions can be drawn as to whether the instrument is applicable for the group of Somali caretakers in Sweden or not. The instrument is likely in need of a revision, and a thorough pre-test before it can be implemented clinically.