A preliminary study suggests that there is a link in children between daytime rest and learning to read. Children taking naps during the day would indeed be better able to match letters and sounds.
When they enroll in school, children's ability to read and write lies in their ability to match letters and sounds . On the other hand, children with difficulties on this side are more likely to develop dyslexia or dysorthographia.
A study published in the journal Child Development on March 29, 2022 looked at the link between sleep, the development of reading and writing skills as well as to the development of memory. Researchers from Macquarie University (Australia) and Oxford University (UK) brought together 32 children aged between three and five years. According to the results, taking naps during the day would have been beneficial for their learning of letters and sounds. However, this is a preliminary study , so the results are not definitive.
The children who participated in the study were in two daycares in Sydney (Australia). They napped regularly and have received no instruction in sounds and letters. For two to four weeks, each child participated in several sessions aimed at assessing their basic verbal knowledge. The researchers then trained the children to match sounds and letters using pictures. These tests were conducted once after the child's nap, then a second time a week later, without a nap beforehand.
For these scientists, taking naps during the day is beneficial for children, as it allows them to reinvest the information learned in order to perform a new task. Naps therefore have positive effects in learning letters and sounds, especially in terms of using the knowledge acquired to decipher words that are still unknown .
While the study was carried out in the field, the sample remains small and the researchers were unable to measure certain objective data may influence the results. For example, it may be physiological characteristics related to sleep or even genetic variables. Although promising, these results still require further study in the context of further studies.
