Our expert guest in this episode is sleep consultant, Sarah Patel. Sarah talks to Clare about sleep and how you can build a sleep routine that suits your child.
Sarah is a sleep teacher. She has a BSc in Cognitive Science, a PGCE in Primary Education and an MA in Education. She has worked in education for over 15 years as a primary teacher and as a senior lecturer in education. Sarah retrained as an infant sleep consultant in 2019 with the legendary Lyndsey Hookway.
Sarah takes a holistic approach which aims to support families to make choices which fit with their individual needs and their family’s routines. She doesn’t class herself as a sleep trainer, but rather a sleep teacher. This means at no point will she recommend methods such as ‘cry it out’, or any non-responsive strategies. Instead, she uses her background in teaching to educate and empower parents to create sleep habits which are based around routine and sleep patterns.
Sarah recommends the book, Still Awake: Responsive sleep tools for toddlers to tweens by Lyndsey Hookway.
You can find Sarah on Instagram at @teachtosleep or on her website.
The three top tips Sarah shares with us in the episode are:
1. Get to know your child’s sleep needs.
2. Have a consistent bedtime routine and bedtime that suits your child.
3. Introduce ways to help your child wind down mentally for bedtime.
The My Family Coach podcasts covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15 minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.
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