What is summer slide or summer setback? It is the loss of academic skills over the summer holidays. As the old saying goes, If you don't use it, you lose it. Studies show that children who don't have academically stimulating summer environments, in fact, can have lower reading and math skills when they return to school in September.
A John Hopkins Study about Summer Learning Loss (or Summer Setback)
Karl L. Alexander, Doris R, Entwisle and Linda S. Olson from John's Hopkins University conducted a study of 650 children from Baltimore in the 1980s. This study of children, from grades 1 to 5, was called Schools Achievement and Inequality:A Seasonal Perspective. They initially set out to conduct a comparison study of the academic levels of students from various social-economic backgrounds. In fact, the 5 year study revealed that the differing financial backgrounds did not directly explain the academic scores. The difference in scores was caused by a lack of summer stimulation or learning opportunities.
Karl Alexander discovered that lower income children acquired skills at the same level and in one case, a higher level then that of the middle and high income level children during the school year. It was only during the summer holidays that children from lower income families lost math and reading skills. When a child's learning environment is not enriched during the summer, their academic scores are lowered.
Summer Programs and Summer Enrichment for Better Grades
On the other hand, children from higher income brackets, who would have participated in interesting summer programs, traveled and had access to many books, actually had their scores increase over the summer break. Despite the lack of formal education in the summer months, engaging activities alone, resulted in higher reading and math scores.
Mr. Alexander and his colleagues coined the term spring slide to describe the loss of academic skills in the vacation months. The more affluent families took their children on interesting summer vacations, days trips and enrolled them in summer programs. Karl Alexander's research makes parents and teachers aware of how important summer learning, or the absence of it, is to academic success.
Preventing Summer Setback
Parents can learn from this study regardless of their financial status. Simply an awareness that children need to be challenged and engaged during the summer vacation months can go a long way in preventing summer slide. It does not require a great deal of time or money to cultivate learning in the summer. Here are some summer ideas to engage children.
- Visit the local library regularly
- Go to free museum days
- Limit television and computer use to educational sites
- Opt for a zoo or science center visit, instead of an amusement park
- Plant a garden or start a compost
- Read street signs, menus and maps
When a child's mind is not activated and exercised, there is a risk of lost academic skills. The John Hopkins study demonstrated the importance of summer learning. For more information on engaging children during the summer read, Kids Reading Ideas for Summer Vacation and Best Fun Free Educational Websites for Kids., Kid's Educational Summer Activities - Keep Children Engaged, Summer Writing Ideas for Kids and Kids' Reading Ideas for Summer Vacation.
Sources: Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. Boston, MA: Little Brown & Co., 2008.
Linda Wongkee - Linda is an online and print author. She writes about travel and education, her two passions!!
