title: Brief report: a "storybook" ending to children's bedtime problems--the use of a rewarding social story to reduce bedtime resistance and frequent night waking.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of a social story with tangible rewards to reduce children's disruptive bedtime behavior and frequent night waking.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four children (ages 2 to 7), with clinically significant disruptive bedtime behavior, received the intervention, which consisted of a social story (The Sleep Fairy) that sets forth (a) parental expectations for appropriate bedtime behavior and (b) rewards for meeting those expectations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parent sleep diaries indicated that children had a 78% average decrease in frequency of disruptive bedtime behaviors from baseline to intervention, with another 7% decrease at 3-month follow-up. Night wakings, a problem for 2 children during baseline, were not a problem during intervention and follow-up. Parents reported improved daytime behavior for 3 of the 4 children. Parents gave the intervention high acceptability ratings and maintained a high level of treatment fidelity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Use of a social story helped parents implement a multicomponent intervention using a familiar bedtime routine, thereby increasing the likelihood that implementation and effects occurred. The book format makes this intervention widely available to parents and professionals, with minimal costs and inconvenience.
authors.affiliation: Girls and Boys Town, Nebraska, and University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68010, USA. burker@girlsandboystown.org
authors.forename: Raymond V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: Brett R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.forename: Jane L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Peterson
mesh_terms: D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D001638:Bibliotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012201:Reward; D013009:Somnambulism / Q000517:prevention & control*