J went to bed with books on CD playing for YEARS. He would stay engaged enough listening to the stories that he could wind down. If we tried to read to him, he would fidget after a bit and start getting distracted by things in his room, but with recordings he was alone and in the dark. We did learn to watch timing of new books.... The first time or two through a new book, he would stay awake until the end of the disc rather than miss anything.

Lavender (oil) also seems to help to this day (he's 16 now). I don't know if it is just lavender, which is supposed to be calming, or that he has come to associate it with bedtime? Any comforting, familiar, "safe" smell might work.

I put lavender oil on J's sheets. As he warms them up, the scent fills the air. (Helps with the pervasive teenage boy funk in his room, too.) ;-)

One small whisper of warning re:melatonin and males, in particular. My sister tried it with her son and a he experienced a very rare and uncomfortable, though not life threatening side effect (a painful erection that took several hours to resolve). It's an exceedingly rare reaction, but it is documented and could be especially troubling for a child with communications issues. I'd start with a low level dose and raise it slowly, just in case.

I started giving my daughter Valerian root pills. They are much bigger capsules than melatonin. They seem to work OK. My daughter is 15 YO but still wakes up during the night. the difference is she doesn't wake me up anymore. I am looking into another natural sleep aide that I have seen advertised that has 3 different natural sleep aids in 1 pill. I take the Valerian myself and it helps me fall to sleep but i do wake up several times in the night.

we have been doing clonidine .5 mgs +10mgs melatonin + gaba plus at night and he sleep sooo much better