Worried about learning loss? Expert tips on keeping kids on track over the summer break

Hamid Ahmadpanah, left, and his wife Shohreh Aghababaei spend time with their children at their home in Ottawa on June 8, 2023. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press)

The two-month summer break can be a welcome vacation for students, with long stretches of free time away from school.

But some parents and educators worry that they may get behind in their learning.

As most Canadian children reach the halfway point of their summer vacation, CTVNews.ca spoke to an educator about ways to combat learning loss, also known as summer slide or summer brain drain.

What is summer brain drain?

Children can lose a bit of knowledge or skills when they aren't doing a lot of reading and writing during the summer break, said Shelley Stagg Peterson, professor at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies and Education.

Stagg Peterson's expertise and research focuses on the loss of reading and writing skills for students from kindergarten to Grade 6.

"There's a bit of a decline when they get back to school," Stagg Peterson said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday.

How much knowledge do you lose over the summer?

"There's an expectation when teachers have a new class in September," Stagg Peterson said. "They just expect that their students, because they haven't been doing a lot of reading and writing over the summer, will need to do some catching up."

As a result, teachers use the first month back at school to do a lot of reviewing of material and assessments to determine students' abilities, Stagg Peterson said.

"If you compare the results of the assessments that were done in June to those that are done in September, there's sometimes a decline," she said. "It's just like a muscle. If you don't exercise the muscle, then it's not going to be as strong and able to do what it needs to do after two months."

As for how much knowledge is lost over those two months, the research varies. Some studies suggest the amount is anywhere from one to three months' worth of learning, while other analyses have found little evidence of learning loss, or found claims may be overstated.

How do you combat learning loss?

To keep children on the right path, Stagg Peterson recommends finding ways to incorporate reading and writing in "a playful, fun way" through any kind of text or images.

She noted her advice to parents applies throughout the school year as well, including after school and on weekends. Stagg Peterson said this sends a message "that reading and writing are important and they're also enjoyable."

Expose children to text – such as in books, newspapers, magazines, signs, letters, emails, postcards or websites – as much as possible, she said.

"When the children are playing inside, parents can try to find the kinds of games or activities where there's going to be literacy involved," she said.

To help make reading engaging and fun, she suggests examples such as writing notes as a way to communicate with children, making funny voices for some characters and asking children questions, such as what they think is going to happen next in a story, in order to build suspense.

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Even kids just doing scribbles when communicating with parents or caregivers can support literacy, she added.

Another way to make literacy fun? Making popsicle stick signs with written messages, she suggested.

She suggested this playful approach instead of trying to recreate schoolwork during kids' downtime.

"I do not recommend phonics exercises at home," she said. "That is the surest way to turn children off reading. Leave the phonic stuff for school."

Stagg Peterson said parents and caregivers should make a point of speaking to children when spending time with them.

"Oral language is very supportive of all learning," she said.

Games and activities involving some reading could also be helpful, she added.

Should you hire a tutor?

Wealthier parents may send their kids to summer camps or hire someone to help keep them learning over the summer, but Stagg Peterson said parents can promote learning at home for free.

"You don't have to (spend) a lot of money," she said. "It's just something that you incorporate in your interactions with your children."

Creative ways to encourage learning

One creative and budget-friendly example from Stagg Peterson's research actually came from the children themselves.

A group of kids wrote a message on a paper airplane to communicate with their mother, who was in another room.

"So they came to see literacy as something that could be useful to them as part of their life (and) writing was a lot of fun."

Another fun activity recommended by Stagg Peterson: treasure hunts. Adults can write clues and hide them for children to find.

"Children have to read the clues to go find the next clues," she said. "It's all part of showing that literacy can be playful as well."

The most impactful action

Whether it's bedtime or any time throughout the day, reading with your children is especially important, Stagg Peterson added.

"I cannot emphasize that strongly enough," she said. "It's really, really important that you have that interaction with children."

Research shows that the interaction, bonding and the relationship that adults build with children are just as important as the reading itself, she said.

Technology as a tool

Parents can help children prevent learning loss in both the real and online worlds.

Despite concerns about children using technology, Stagg Peterson said gaining knowledge online can nurture curiosity in children.

"The internet is there as a tool," she said. "So being curious about what's happening in everyday life and then using the resources that we have, which are amazing now to find out answers to questions."

Still, she said she's concerned when children play "mindless" games.

"If the children are going to be playing games on the internet, see if you can find games that are going to stimulate their minds and not just be really, really repetitive," she said. "I'd much rather see them using the internet to find out more about the world and to come to know more about the possibilities in the world."

Criteria for books, games and activities

To determine whether a book, game or activity would be helpful in preventing summer brain drain, Stagg Peterson recommends asking the following questions.

"I would say that the criteria that you would use are essentially: Is my child learning something new or is my child just doing the same old thing over and over and over again?"

She said doing repetitive things isn't necessarily bad, as they may feel safe and comfortable, but she compared it to only having a diet of chocolate chip cookies.

"Yeah, they're very satisfying, but they're not going to nurture your body," she said. "If you're always playing the games that are fun and satisfying and comfortable and you don't stretch at all ... it's just not good for your brain. It's not good for your overall development."

Another important criterion is whether the game encourages children to interact with someone, not just with the screen, Stagg Peterson said.

"It's very, very well recognized in the literature on learning that we learn in our relationships with others," she explained. "Other people bring new ideas, new knowledge, new experiences, new ways of thinking about the world. And so if there are games that invite children to interact with other people, then that's going to be much more stimulating and healthy for them."

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While she doesn't have specific recommendations for books, she said they should be fun for children.

"It shouldn't be books where the children are trying to figure out how to learn new words and things like that," she said. "Whatever literacy kinds of activities go on after school, where the children are supposed to be having fun, they should have fun with them."

How much time should kids spend on summer learning?

Rather than a specific amount of time, Stagg Peterson recommends children get the opportunity to nurture their curiosity and literacy whenever it arises.

"For the most part, like most of the day during the summer, they should be out playing," she said. "I'm hoping children are spending a lot of time outside playing, inventing their own games, playing with other children. That's all really important.

"And that the time that they spend with adults is the time when they could be doing some of these literacy activities that I'm talking about."

Do children need two months off school?

Some school systems are doing away with a long summer break, but Stagg Peterson suggests that this may not be necessary.

The two-month break can be a perfect opportunity for parents to spend more time with their children, Peterson said.

And the climate is a factor in her opinion as well.

"It's hot in the summer and the children just need a break," she said. "I think we all need a break."