Summer Slide

My Views Are My Own

By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.

5/20/2025

As the school year winds down, students and educators look forward to some relaxation and a break from teaching and learning.  While summer is a glorious time for many students, learning loss during those months is a phenomenon known as the summer slide.  “In 2021, School’s Out: The Role of Summers in Understanding Achievement Disparities, a published article in the American Educational Research Journal, reported on a study that found students in “grades 1-8 on average lost 17-34% of the prior year’s learning gains during summer break.”  The most important thing that parents can do to prevent a summer slide is to get your children reading.  This can be more difficult than it sounds.  Following are some ideas for getting the children in your family reading.

Many students are falling behind in reading for many different reasons.  One of the top reasons that kids hate reading is because it is hard for them.  As children spend more time on screens than ever before, their brains are becoming dependent on constant stimulation. A great book to learn more about this is Glow Kids.  They begin to crave screens over anything else.  Students begin to struggle more and more with written text.  There are some very simple things parents can do to set their kids up for success.  First and foremost, keep screens out of bedrooms.  Sending young kids to bed a half hour early and allowing them to read before falling asleep is a great way to relax before drifting off to sleep.  

Have lots of easy books in your home.  As with any skill, students build confidence when they feel like they are good at the skill.  Getting kids to like reading is half that battle and building their confidence will help them develop a love for reading, or at least a non-hate for reading with older kids.  Goodwill and other thrift shops are a great place to find cheap books.  Of course, libraries are a great resource as well. 

Read with your kids in different places.  Young kids love to read in a tent, on trampolines, or on a blanket in the yard.  Take an older kid to a library or a coffee/ice cream shop to read.  Students who are used to being on screens will have a harder time building reading stamina, but with less access to screens and more access to books, it’s possible and will be worth the effort!  If you need suggestions for your child’s reading material, please reach out and I will be happy to provide some suggestions for you.