Sleep & Bedtime

Helping your child feel safe sleeping alone

The bedroom door closes and the calls begin. Sleeping alone asks a child to feel safe without you in the room — a skill that grows with practice and predictability.

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What your child may be practising

Recognizing the body's night-time worry signals
Using a calming step they choose themselves
Trusting a predictable goodnight routine
Staying in bed for a little longer each time

How a Maple Kids story approaches it

1The story names the night-time feeling instead of dismissing it.
2The hero finds one comforting step that belongs to them.
3The Parent Guide offers steady words to repeat at the door.
4The practice keeps the routine identical every night.

Story preview · Page 6

The room was dark, but Rosa's lamp made a small warm moon. She held her bear and whispered, “I can be brave for three slow breaths.”

Parent Guide preview

What this page is doing

Giving the child one concrete, repeatable action for the moment you leave the room.

Ask

“What made Rosa's room feel safer?”“What would you like in your room tonight?”

Words to repeat

“You are safe. I am close. I will check on you.”

Try it in real life

Choose three bedtime steps together and keep the same order tonight.

Why stories can help with this

Shared Reading & Development
The American Academy of Pediatrics states that shared reading can support parent-child relationships and social-emotional, cognitive, language and literacy development.
Klass P, Miller-Fitzwater A, High PC, et al. “Literacy Promotion: An Essential Component of Primary Care Pediatric Practice.” Pediatrics. 2024;154(6):e2024069090.
DOI: 10.1542/peds.2024-069090
Stories & Emotion Regulation
Structured emotion-themed picture-book activities have been associated with improvements in preschool children's emotion recognition, expression and regulation strategies.
Wang L, Cui R, Wan N, Hu W. “Reshaping the Ability–Strategy Link in Emotion Regulation: The Role of a Structured Picture-Book Intervention for Preschoolers.” Behavioral Sciences. 2025;15(8):1137.
DOI: 10.3390/bs15081137

These studies examine shared reading and picture books in general. They did not test Maple Kids. Maple Kids is an educational parenting tool and not medical, psychological, diagnostic or therapeutic care.

Read the Research

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