Summer Reading Loss: What is it and Why Does it Happen?

Children love playing during the summer. They spend all year long waiting for blissful summer days when they won’t have to drag themselves out of bed every morning. Playing is not bad; after all, they’re kids. It’s just natural for them to want to spend most of their days on fun activities. But, as we know, anything that’s too much is never good. When absolutely no time is set aside for reading, it results in what we call summer reading loss. What is Summer Reading Loss?

Reading is a skill, and like other skills, it needs to be continuously practiced. A basketball player who does not practice his/her dribbling will tend to get rusty in a few months or even weeks.

This is also the case with children’s reading skills. Summer reading loss is when a child’s reading level takes a dip because the child’s reading skills are not practiced during the summer. When children spend all day playing and do not devote a little time to read, they risk losing as much as a full year’s growth in their reading skills. So, when kids don’t sit down and open a book even for a few minutes each day, all the hard work put into improving their reading skills in the past year may go to waste. What’s worse is that summer reading loss accumulates through the fall. While their peers are advancing their reading skills throughout the fall, children that experience summer reading loss spend that time making up for it. As a tutor who sees many students who have experienced this, I can’t stress enough the importance of reading over the summer.

How Much Play Time is Too Much? It is tricky to quantify how much play time is too much since this depends on every parent’s preferences. A four-hour TV marathon for me can be less than ideal, but for another family, it may be okay. The thing is, when your child spends all day long on gadgets or playing outside, that’s when problems happen. A Little Reading Goes a Long Way As parents, it is our obligation to make sure that our kids stay diligent in their reading even during the summer. As a mom myself, I know that I don’t want my kids to have a harder time come fall. So even though we may want to spend as much time as we can with them on vacation trips and other family bonding activities, reading should not take a backseat.

Keep in mind the importance of reading over the summer, and have your kids read a few minutes every day. This will guarantee steady reading growth for your child and will save you from headaches in the coming school year.

Now What?

What do you do if your child doesn't want to read because they struggle with reading?

Get a reading tutor, this will ensure that your child stays on track, stays motivated, and not only stays at their current reading level, but increases in their reading level.

I currently have a couple spots open, so if you are interested in an individualized plan for your child that will make a difference you can contact me at jbkaminski@gmail.com. I will provide a free assessment and consultation to get your child the help he or she needs to start off the school year more confident in their reading and abilities than ever before.