Join one of Australia’s leading sleep medicine physicians, Dr. Jim Papadopoulos, for this special masterclass in sleep difficulties in children.

Dr. Jim Papadopoulos is widely known for his work with sleep studies in children, and in particular children with AD/HD special needs, orthodontic problems, gastro-intestinal issues and need for CPAP therapy.

Disordered sleep is prevalent, affecting 30% of children. In fact some subgroups of children have an even higher chance of having sleep problems, e.g., children with Developmental Delay/Disability (60%), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (80%) & Down Syndrome (80% have OSA).

Disordered sleep affects mood, behaviour and cognition and has an adverse impact on the family. Adverse intellectual impacts may be irreversible. Snoring, even if non-vibratory (heavy breathing) can indicate the presence of underlying Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), Allergic Rhinitis, Gastro-oesophageal Reflux Disease and/or structural anomalies. These are also important contributors to adverse dentofacial outcomes.

We all know that snoring even without OSA can have adverse neurocognitive and dentofacial consequences. Around 10% of children snore, only 3% of children have OSA. So only 1/3 of children who snore have OSA – What’s going on with the other 2/3? We will try and explore snoring and sleep difficulties in children from a new perspective and establish a background knowledge base from which we can start to tackle real world clinical conundrums in paediatric sleep.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the health burden of snoring and sleep difficulties in children
2. Understand the symptoms, signs and tests which help us evaluate snoring and sleep difficulties in children
3. Understand the importance of a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and management of snoring and sleep difficulties in children

COURSE OUTLINE

1. Sleep, behaviour and learning in children – clinical theory: 1 hour
2. Sleep, behaviour and learning in children – clinical practice: 1.5 hours

THE TOP 5 TAKE AWAYS

1. Sleep disorders in children are common but even more likely in children with developmental delay and disability
2. If you don’t identify and fix the sleep disorder it makes it difficult for therapeutic interventions to gain traction
3. Don’t assume daytime issues with concentration, behaviour and learning are not symptoms of a sleep disorder until you’ve excluded a sleep disorder
4. Don’t assume snoring and sleep difficulties in children is OSA, you’d be wrong 2/3 of the time.
5. We need to know if OSA is present or not and how severe it is in order to manage it appropriately so sleep studies are indicated when the clinical picture suggests the diagnosis of OSA in children FULL STOP.

OSA = obstructive sleep apnoea

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