Napping for better learning

TAKING A nap may help preschool-age toddlers learn language better, according to a study published in the journal Child Development last January.

The authors of the study, led by Michelle Sandoval of the University of Arizona, discovered that three-year-old youngsters who napped after being taught a pair of new verbs understood the words better when tested 24 hours later.

Ms. Sandoval said in a statement that their findings suggest that parents may want to consider maintaining regular naptimes for preschoolers who are at an age where naps are inclined to dwindle.

The 39 three-year-old participants of the study were sorted by the researchers into two groups — the habitual nappers who napped at least four days a week and non-habitual nappers who napped three days per week at most.

The toddlers in each group were randomly assigned to either a napping condition, which involved napping for a minimum of 30 minutes after learning a new verb, or a wakefulness condition, which did not entail any form of sleeping.

“Blicking” and “rooping” were the imaginary verbs that the youngsters learned from the researchers. A video showing two different actors performing actions corresponding to each verb was also shown the participants.

Verbs were specifically chosen because of the relative difficulty in learning them compared with simple nouns which are often a child’s first words. “Verbs are interesting because we know they are very challenging for children to learn and to retain over time,” Ms. Sandoval said.

She continued, “Individual objects have clear boundaries, and children learn about those very early in development — before they hit their first birthday, they know a lot about objects. Verbs aren’t as neatly packaged. Besides a physically perceptible action, a verb contains information about the number of people involved and can contain information about when the action took place.”