Regulation Through Relationships: Parenting and Child Sleep

This webinar is presented by Anat Scher, Ph.D.
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 
Time: 9am PT / 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET 
Webinar length is approx 90 mins, ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the event.

Sleep is a fundamental state, critical for survival and for optimal functioning. For infants, sleep is the dominant state, regulated by neuro-cortical sites as well as by the caregiver. Drawing on animal models and developmental theories, a series of studies that examine the bi-directional relationships between child and parent, at the individual, family and cultural contexts are presented. This research show how parents’ emotional state, mental representation, behavior, as well as own experience shape their child sleep. Given the importance of “good” sleep for development, clarifying how parents regulate their child sleep is important for parents and clinicians.

Objectives

1. Highlight biological sleep basics
2. Discuss infant sleep from an attachment perspective
3. Examine different levels of the caregiving system and connect to child sleep 

Anat Scher, Ph.D. is Professor (Emerita) of developmental psychology, at the School of Therapy, Counseling and Human Development, University of Haifa (Israel). Her research interest is infancy, specifically, the interplay between biology and caregiving contexts. Her primary area of research is sleep.

In her studies, she applies a developmental perspective and examines how child factors and parenting interact to shape developmental trajectories. Parent-child interaction, parenting ideologies and childcare settings are examined in the context of sleep regulation in early years. In investigating the dynamic interplay between domains of development, sleep serves an anchor for research questions such as the associations among motor milestones, sleep and learning.

In her research, she applies experimental, longitudinal and micro-dynamic paradigms; methodological tools include physiological, observational, and self-report assessments. Dr. Scher's publications on child development and sleep span over 30 years; she has been a visiting scholar in Canada (UBC), UK (Oxford) and Italy (Bologna).