A Night Light That Keeps Kids In Bed - No, Really!

Cordy has always been an early riser. There have been good times when she would sleep until 6:30 am, and not-so-good times when she would be up for the day at 4:30 am. We don't like her to be out of her room when we're not awake (safety issues, obviously), and we really don't want her waking us up at times when no sane human should be awake.

Winter is especially hard, because we can't use the old "when the sun comes up you can come out of your room" explanation. We recently tried buying her a digital clock, and teaching her to stay in bed until the clock says "6" is a great idea until she comes into your room at 4:36 am with a chipper smile on her face as she exclaims, "Mommy, there's a six on my clock!" Beyond that, teaching a five year old - or at least our five year old with autism - the intricacies of 6:00 versus 6:30 is also difficult.

But we've found a solution that works now. I was invited to try out the Good Nite Lite, a night light that also functions to teach children when it's nighttime and morning. It has a small clock in it that you can program to set a bedtime and set a time when it's OK to get out of bed.

Here's how it works: plug the Good Nite Lite into the wall, and when the internal clock reaches the time you set for bedtime, the nightlight turns on to reveal a glowing blue moon:


While bright at first, the moon dims after the first hour. The moon stays on all night, lending a soft blue glow to the room that isn't too bright to disturb. When it's time to get up in the morning - according to the time you set - the moon changes to a yellow-orange glowing sun:


The sun stays on for only two hours before it shuts off for the day to conserve energy. The beauty of this system is that you can change the times whenever you need, so if you are trying to retrain an early riser to stay in bed longer, you can reset the time in slow increments over days or weeks.

Does it work? I'm amazed and thrilled to say that it does! Cordy understands the sun and moon concept far better than telling time on a digital clock. She loves to see the moon on at night, and really does stay in her room until it switches to a sun.

A quick example: Aaron set it to switch to the sun at 6:15 am each day. He accidentally reset it to 6:45 am one night, and the next morning Cordy didn't come out of her room until 6:45. Her sister was awake and out of her room before Cordy, encouraging Cordy to join her in the hallway, and Cordy refused to come out of her room until she saw the sun on her night light. We are stunned at how easy this has been - never before has she stayed in her room so easily.

Are there any negatives? Well, programming the clock is a little complicated, but the instruction guide does provide fairly clear directions. Just remember to be quick, because if you wait 10 seconds, the time returns to the previously set time.

At this point I'm declaring the Good Nite Lite a brilliant product that I wish I knew about two years ago. I'd gladly sign a petition to make this a required item for new parents. (I'm already considering a second one for Mira - she's starting to be an early riser now, too.)

I don't think Cordy will be giving up her Good Nite Lite for a long time. And I think Aaron and I will be getting more sleep now thanks to this wonderful night light.

Full Disclosure: I was given one Good Nite Lite for review. No positive review was guaranteed or expected. All opinions are my own, and no further compensation was provided.

Learning By Example With Social Skill Builders

As many of you know, Cordy was evaluated for developmental delays when she was three and I was informed that she was likely on the spectrum for autism disorders. Most likely PDD-NOS is what we were told by the school psychologist. She's had a year and a half of special needs preschool now, and thankfully she's made tremendous progress. Her sensory sensitivities are no longer debilitating and she is a little more aware of the social world around her. Instead of looking right through people, she recognizes them and even interacts with them.

But when it comes to knowing the right way to behave in particular situations, she often has trouble understanding the rules of social behavior. Her social skills are still better than they were, but she has a long way to go before the risk of causing a disruption in a new environment is minimized.

Parent Bloggers invited me to try out a social skills software called My Community, made by Social Skill Builders. The software is aimed at children 5-15 years old, and although Cordy isn't five yet, she's only five months away from it. The goal of this software is to teach children about appropriate social behavior, interactions, expectations and safety precautions in several common areas of social interaction, like the doctor's office, the car, and a restaurant.

There are five levels in this software. The very basic level allows children to select an area of town and view videos modeling appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, with an explanation of what was correct and incorrect given at the end of each video. Level 2 asks the player to answer basic multiple choice questions about what they see. Level 3 asks them to look for visual cues to social behaviors. Level 4 involves matching thoughts or feelings to those they see in the photos or video. And Level 5 asks the player to anticpate and predict the correct responses to situations.

I showed the game to Cordy and we went through Level 1 and Level 2 together. She had trouble focusing on Level 1 because she wasn't asked to do anything, but on Level 2 she was willing to make an effort at answering questions. She loved that each correct answer gave her a little lit-up icon below the video player - she especially enjoyed "earning" ice cream cones in the restaurant section! After you answer a certain number of questions, you get to play a mini-game - in our case, Cordy insisted that I play the mini-game while she cheered me on.

Cordy has a very short attention span at this point, but she did focus on the videos for short periods. For her, it's easier to come back to it a few times a day for a few minutes each, which isn't a problem because each user creates their own profile and their progress is saved to that profile.

I played the other levels, and I like how all aspects of social skills are covered, from reading body langauge, understanding feelings, and predicting responses. I'll admit that even I didn't get every question correct.

I see a lot of future use for us with this software. As she gets older, she'll be able to tackle the higher levels and pick up on the finer points of social skills. And I don't think your child needs to have autism to use this video. Many of the scenes showed typical thoughtless kid behavior (taking things from others, bugging mom in the car, refusing to share, etc.) and then modeled proper behavior in each situation. I'd guess many children would learn something from this software. There's a free demo to view on the website if you're curious about if this would be a good product for your child.

Overall I really like My Community by Social Skill Builders. The videos provide excellent social behavior demonstrations without looking over-the-top, and the interactive features of the software keep a child engaged in learning proper social skills.

Stay tuned as I'll be reviewing Preschool Playtime Vol. 2, another product by Social Skill Builders, in a few weeks!