Interview: Establishing good sleep patterns with Sleepasaurus.
We recently had a chat with a couple of regular users of our dinosaur sleep training app, Sleepasaurus. Sisters Lisa and Gabrielle were very kind to give us an insight into how the app helps their kids establish regular sleeping patterns.
A chat with Emily
Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Lisa Domican, I am the Mum of two teenagers with Autism and ADHD, Liam and Grace. We live in Dublin, Ireland but we were all born in Australia.
Lisa created the wonderful Grace App, an application which helps autistic and other special needs children to communicate effectively, by building semantic sequences from relevant images to form sentences. Download Grace App here.
How do you use Sleepasaurus?
My son has great difficulty adjusting to the changing daylight over the seasons. In summer it gets bright at 4am and if he wakes up, he thinks it is time to get up. He adapts well to visual guides and likes structure. We have it on an old iPhone 5c with a broken home button and it sits in a docking station next to his tv.
At night, we have a routine that starts at 9:45pm. He brushes his teeth with me helping, uses a mouthwash and then fills up his drinking bottle with water. He goes to bed and expects me come upstairs within 15 minutes to say Goodnight.
I have to follow this ritual:
1. Tell him to "choose one screen" (he has a video/tv combo and also a portable dvd player connected to a larger flat screen tv) So he turns off the big tv.
2. Find his "wahwah" which is a Disney Mulan doll he sleeps with on his pillow. He also has a "Bossbaby" doll he calls Dill Pickles. All other toys are in the attic.3. Put the dinosaur to bed.He will stay in bed and go to sleep quite quickly watching his video player which will stop at the end of the tape. (unlike a DVD) If I miss any of these steps he will call me back to do it.
Our "Target Behaviour" is In the morning. Liam has agreed to stay in bed until the Dinosaur is awake at 8am. If he gets up before 8am, he is told to go back and wait. If he stays in bed he gets a token. At the moment his tokens are iTunes themed. He earns enough to buy music and movies to download.If he waits for the Dinosaur then either myself or my husband will get up with him and make him a coffee and breakfast.
How long have you been using the app?
Since I met Paddy at Ull in 2014!
How has Sleepasaurus changed your daily routines?
It gives Liam a sense of consistency when the light is changing. He relies on it most in Summer, when it's too bright, when the clocks change in Spring and Autumn and in Winter when it is always dark! So, all the time! He finds change very difficult and gets very stressed out when the weather changes and he has to decide whether to wear a coat or not. The Sleepasaurus really helps.
Which are the most popular dinosaurs in Sleepasaurus?
It varies for him but usually Spiney!
Anything we could do to improve the app?
Add a second App for token reinforcement. If the correct behaviour is achieved then the parent can open that app and give them a dinosaur token.The Dinosaur should do a dance and say "I'm a Sleepasaurus" If they did not stay in bed as required then the dinosaur should yawn and say "Try again tomorrow"
When they get the number of tokens agreed, All the dinosaurs should get up and party. The number should be adjustable from 1 to 7 so a minimum number of correct sleeps can get rewarded with a "win"You slowly increase the number of nights. It should only go up to 7 though.
There could be a box where parents can upload a photo of the desired prize, such as a collectible cards or a new dvd/game.
There should also be a line where the parents can write what behaviour they are aiming for, such as "Emily is going to bed at 7pm. She will brush her teeth, go to the toilet, and say Good night! She will stay in her bed and have a good sleep until morning. She is a great SLEEPASAURUS! (this is called a social story. It sets out the parameters for expected behaviour to aim for in a concrete but positive way)
I also think you should always keep a legacy version of the App if possible. If parents are using an old iPhone or iPod touch to keep it separate from the device the child is playing on during the day, then it has to work on iOS 9 and lower if possible.
Thanks so much to Lisa and Gabrielle for taking the time to talk to us. It’s great to hear about how people are using our apps. We hope you enjoy those stickers we sent. ;)
Download Sleepasaurus from the App Store.