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. 2022 Jul;93(4):1145-1153.
doi: 10.1111/cdev.13753. Epub 2022 Mar 29.

Nap effects on preschool children's learning of letter-sound mappings

Hua-Chen Wang  1 , Kate Nation  2 , M Gareth Gaskell  3 , Serje Robidoux  4 , Anna Weighall  5 , Anne Castles  4
Affiliations

Nap effects on preschool children's learning of letter-sound mappings

Hua-Chen Wang et al. Child Dev. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

This study explored whether a daytime nap aids children's acquisition of letter-sound knowledge, which is a fundamental component for learning to read. Thirty-two preschool children in Sydney, Australia (Mage = 4 years;3 months) were taught letter-sound mappings in two sessions: one followed by a nap and the other by a wakeful period. Learning was assessed by explicit letter-sound mappings ("Which sound does this letter make?") and knowledge generalization tasks ("Here's Tav and Cav, which one is /kav/?"). Results from the knowledge generalization task showed better performance after a nap than after wake. However, no nap benefit was found for explicit letter-sound knowledge. This study provides initial evidence that naps could be beneficial for preschool children's learning of letter-sound mappings.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The difference in accuracy between nap and no nap conditions for the explicit learning measure
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
The difference in accuracy between nap and no nap conditions for the knowledge transfer measure
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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