Understanding sleep and safe sleep practices in early childhood education and care

This module has been designed to give you an understanding of sleep and its importance to the overall health, wellbeing and development of infants and children.

In this module you will learn about:

• the science of sleep
• the sleep requirements of babies and young children
• safe sleeping environments, and
• different approaches you can take to support the development of healthy, safe sleep and rest habits in early childhood education and care settings.

This module explores a variety of interventions that aim to address sleep and settling challenges. The module will equip you with practical information that will help you to:

• address different sleep and settling behaviours
• support parents to understand and manage sleep and settling
• inform parents about where to seek help for their child’s sleep and settling issues and
• facilitate the development of good sleep habits in early childhood setting

In this module we’ll look at the role policies, procedures and practice play in ensuring good sleep, specifically:

• the Education and Care Services National Regulations that direct the development of sleep and rest practice in ECEC services
• the importance of meeting and exceeding the requirements of the National Quality Framework (NQF), and
• how these regulations and requirements support you to address the individual sleep and rest needs of babies, toddlers and young children.