When Should You Worry About the ‘Summer Slide’? Tips to Help Combat Real Learning Loss

“But unless you’re already worried about your child’s academic performance and you want to make sure that you’re using the summer really well to build those extra foundations and learn more, the summer slide is not this big boogeyman that we all need to kind of run away from,” she said.

For kids who may already be struggling with academics now that school is out, summer is a great time to help them better prepare for the year ahead. Schools sometimes run summer school for a few weeks or offer programs that include learning, fun activities, and reviewing the previous year.​​

“To parents, [these district programs] they’re usually cheap or free, so it’s the best kind of world, where kids get to be part of activities during the day, usually with their peers,” Kuhfeld said.

What are some great summer learning activities for kids?

For young children, Dr. MH Raza, an associate professor in the College of Education at Missouri State University, suggests that parents keep school activities light during the summer.

“Parents can make it natural; they don’t have to make learning a burden for their children,” said Raza.

She adds that 20 minutes a day of stress-free reading is often all it takes to help kids grow mentally over the summer.

Raza listed the following as activities parents may use:

• Ask your kids to make a shopping list and take it to the grocery store. Children can browse products, compare prices, and help with product purchasing decisions.
• When driving, parents can point to road signs and ask their children to read them. Or they can ask their children to say the words they see.
• Parents can talk to their children about their health issues and experiences.
• Children can be more involved in baking or cooking and helping measure the ingredients.
• Parents can get kids involved in backyard projects or science experiments.

For teachers, the researchers suggest that teachers create some time to review the previous year’s content at the beginning of the year. Kuhfeld says most teachers are already doing this, according to research and past research.

Kuhfeld says: “Teachers face such a challenge in terms of reviewing information and incorporating it into the year-round curriculum. “Building in review time seems normal, and the expectation is that kids won’t remember everything they learned the previous year.”⁠

Learning loss in youth

However, it’s not just young children who can lose out on learning during recess. Older students may also experience a summer slide

“I believe that older children, especially high school and college students, are also losing their learning, but that learning loss is not documented,” said Raza.

He explains that critical thinking, engagement, self-reflection and hands-on activities are all deeply connected in learning environments. When older students are cut off from their academic environment or their collaborative peer groups, they often experience learning loss. But he says more research needs to be done to estimate or measure the impact.

Todd Irving, principal of Pinole Valley High School suggests that students look for non-traditional summer school activities. Irving points out that his school offers the program during the summer, but that students can also take courses at a local community college or even online.

“There are many ways you can do summer school,” Irving said. “We encourage them to learn and do different things.” .

But he warns that students take too much during the break

“One thing we don’t want to do is to burn them in summer schools, so that when they come back in September when we get to October, November it will be like ‘I’ve been burned’,” he said. “So we have to be really strategic about how we do that.”