Keep your child OFF the Summer Slide!
– for helpful tips to improve your memory (excerpt from article published by Reading is Fundamental)

Something is waiting for many children each summer and their parents don’t even know it’s out there. It’s called the “summer slide,” and it describes what happens when young minds sit idle for three months.

As parents approach the summer break, many are thinking about the family vacation, trips to the pool, how to keep children engaged in activities at home, the abrupt changes to everyone’s schedule-and how to juggle it all. What they might not be focusing on is how much educational ground their children could lose during the three-month break from school, particularly when it comes to reading.

 

Experts agree that children who read during the summer gain reading skills, while those who do not often slide backward. According to the authors of a report from the National Summer Learning Association: “A conservative estimate of lost instructional time is approximately two months or roughly 22 percent of the school year…. It’s common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills.”

 

The report’s authors further note that family income plays a significant role in determining the magnitude of this summer slide. Students from low-income families “…experience an average summer learning loss in reading achievement of over two months.” Not only do these students suffer greater sliding during the summer, they also experience cumulative effects of greater learning loss each summer.
Click here to read the full article from Reading is Fundamental (www.rif.org).

 

Summer Slide Highlighted on CBS Morning Show!

 

Click here for a video link to an interview with Ron Fairchild of Johns Hopkins University on ways parents can help children prevent the “Summer Slide”.

 

Curious to know if your child could benefit from supplemental educational intervention? Our academic coaching programs are designed to work 1:1 with clients ages 4 to 104 who may struggle with how they learn or process information. Rather than make accommodations or modifications to work, we hold high expectations for all students and abide by the belief that true self-esteem comes from true accomplishments! Let’s work together to design a program that works for your family.