Culture

Behavioral Issues at Bedtime

Question: Our son has been presenting for almost a month with some different behavioral issues at the time of sleep: when he has been sleeping with just a slight noise or any movement he immediately wakes up and crying, he immediately wants to hurry down to the floor and starts crying, walking and touching his hands like in stress (for me looks like he still needs for sleep or still tired) during the day he looks tired but most of the time there’s no way I can help him take a nap, when I tried to hold him he a very stressed and mad. Besides all that, he has been presenting symptoms in the last week where, during nighttime sleep, he wakes up crying/ ugly crying, and most of the time, we have to move him. He goes back to sleep. For me, it’s nothing related to reflux because his last feed was almost 6 hours before he woke up during the night. Additionally, it is worth noting that he has had a regular cold, intermittent for nearly a month, and, of course, this is accompanied by congestion. He has been pooping regularly. Sometimes even twice a day, no vomiting at all.
Answer: Unfortunately, I don’t have much other information to impart. The sleep information from the website is a good start. A visit with the primary care doctor is a good idea to explore physical reasons why he might not be sleeping. Reflux can still occur without food in the stomach, and may be acidic, so that is a possibility. On the other hand, children with CdLS can have periods of very poor sleep for unknown reasons, and various behavioral interventions – these all take time as they are done in a trial-and-error way; there is no one right way for every child.

Legal Disclaimer: Please take note that the CdLS Foundation’s Ask the Expert service is comprised of volunteer professionals in various areas of focus. Response times may vary, and a response is not guaranteed. Answers are not considered a medical, behavioral, or educational consultation. Ask the Expert is not a substitute for the care and attention your child’s personal physician, psychologist, educational consultant, or social worker can deliver.

Answer Published On: January 13th, 2026 10:29 AM

Culture

Anxiety at School

Question: We are noticing increasing physical behaviors at school (throwing things, climbing, and pushing). These behaviors are incredibly rare at home. We are up to date on all specialist visits and have not noticed signs of pain or discomfort. We suspect our child may be experiencing anxiety at school. We have seen indications of anxiety at home and have our child working with a play-based psychologist outside of school and are on a waitlist to get a neuropsych eval. We also have recently received a secondary diagnosis of central auditory processing disorder and know that his processing challenges are not yet being fully supported at school. We are wondering if it is worthwhile to look into anxiety medicines at this stage or if we should wait till we can get the neuropsych eval. Is 8 too young for anxiety medicines? And are there any particular medications you would recommend for a child that work well with mild CdLS (missense NIPBL mutation)? Thanks so much!

Answer: For a young child with developmental disability such as CdLS, anxiety medications are prone to be less effective and cause more side effects. The evaluation as well possibly looking into behavior therapy for anxiety would be important first steps. If an SSRI is used, would consider low dose Celexa (liquid form). Finally, If the anxiety is mostly or only at school, would consider that a behavioral issue and not as responsive to medication.

Legal Disclaimer: Please take note that the CdLS Foundation’s Ask the Expert service is comprised of volunteer professionals in various areas of focus. Response times may vary and a response is not guaranteed. Answers are not considered a medical, behavioral, or educational consultation. Ask the Expert is not a substitute for the care and attention your child’s personal physician, psychologist, educational consultant, or social worker can deliver.

Answer Published On: January 6th, 2026 10:49 AM

Culture

Behavior (aggression)

Our 5-year-old is very aggressive in school. When they don’t do what she wants she tends to react very aggressively. What is happening with her? We don’t know what to do. Sometimes I bring it to her attention but she doesn’t seem to understand.

There can be a number of reasons for your child being aggressive in school and it is not uncommon for children with an intellectual disability to show aggression and other difficult behaviors when they are asked to do things that they do not want to do. When this seems to be a trigger it is important to consider the type of task that the child is being presented with.

Tasks that are too difficult, presented in a way that the child does not understand, are not very rewarding or occur when the child is engaged in highly preferred activities will all lead to incidents of difficult behavior. If the aggression then occurs and the task is removed the child will learn that aggression is one way of saying “no!” as the behavior is rewarded by the removal of the task. In this scenario it is important to break tasks into small steps, present tasks in a way that the child understands what is required and to present very high levels of reward for compliance. These rewards can be faded over time.]

CO/ TK 7-13-10

Legal Disclaimer:  Please take note that the CdLS Foundation’s Ask the Expert service is comprised of volunteer professionals in various areas of focus. Response times may vary and a response is not guaranteed. Answers are not considered a medical, behavioral, or educational consultation. Ask the Expert is not a substitute for the care and attention your child’s personal physician, psychologist, educational consultant, or social worker can deliver.

Answer Published On: October 18th, 2018 2:13 PM