My child has autism. Who is the best person in my community to help me with his sleep? 

My child has autism. Who is the best person in my community to help me with his sleep? 

This in part depends on where you live. For example, in the UK where I live, the first port of call is usually your general practitioner (GP), who can then refer you onto a specialist service. It can be useful to go to your meeting armed with information that can be useful for both you and your health care provider. For example, there are excellent web resources that your GP can use to make a referral. For example, in the UK your GP could contact the British Sleep Society for information about sleep experts in your local area. In the USA the American Academy of Sleep Medicine may be able to provide useful information. There are also autism support groups that may be able to give you information about who is the best person to help you with sleep in your local community too.

If you want to learn more about dealing with sleep difficulties in children with autism there are also good books which address this too – including A Clinical Guide to Pediatric Sleep by Jodi Mindell and Judith Owens.