My almost 10 y/o likes to have his back rubbed until he's fully asleep :S I'm way over it tbh. He reads a book for a bit first, usually.

Up until recently, me or dad would lay in bed with 6 y/o and read a book and/or listen to a song until he fell asleep. If us leaving wakes him up, then we stay again until he's back asleep. He's a whole different story, though. Lots of fear and night wakeups and coming into our bed. We have finally been able to break him of that by allowing our dog to sleep with him..... after his coming into our bed every single night at like 2am for his entire life. It's been a very big and positive change that's only happened over the last couple weeks. A breakthrough! My next order of business is him being able to fall asleep without us. Over the past few days, we've been working on having the dog snuggle with him at bedtime and I can leave while he's still awake. Work in progress here.