Reply to "sleep training" 7 year old with special needs

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[quote=Anonymous]DS is 7 and since he was 3 I have lay down in his bed while he fell asleep and then come back in his room when I was ready to go to sleep. Mostly this started because I have terrible insomnia and between DH's snoring and DS crying for me several times a night there were just too many days when I was trying to function on a couple hours of sleep. DS has has mild but multiple developmental issues, as well as anxiety, so working to change the sleeping arrangement just hasn't been a priority (and frankly there were/are many things I liked about co-sleeping). But now I'm not working this summer and DS has made great improvements in many other areas so I think we are ready to tackle this one.

But how do I start? I know when the kids were babies the idea was to get them to bed "sleepy but awake" and then let them do the work of putting themselves to sleep. Is that still the way to go at age 7? We have a very consistent bedtime routine, it just ends with DS and I snuggling while he falls asleep and I read my phone. Do I just keep everything the same except now I leave at the end and then "check" on him in increasing intervals until he is asleep? He is very anxious about sleeping alone but we've already had a heart to heart about how "most big kids sleep by themselves" so I think he'll really try as long as I check on him rather than going cold turkey.

Then what do I do if he wakes up in the night? Back to checking? It's been a long time and I've given all of my baby sleep books away...

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