Summer is a time for your child to relax, play, travel, and take a break from the routines of the school year. This time to recharge is critical for kids, but it can also come with an unintended consequence known as the "summer slide."
The summer slide refers to the learning loss that occurs when students are not regularly engaged in academic activities during their summer break. Research has shown that many students return to school in the fall having lost some of the progress they made during the previous school year. The classic, two steps forward, one step back dilemma. Reading is particularly vulnerable because it is a skill that improves through consistent practice, especially before a student has reached an independent reading level.
For struggling readers, the impact of the summer slide can be even more detrimental. Most students who already find reading challenging will lose confidence, fluency, and comprehension skills over the summer months. When school resumes, they will spend valuable instructional time relearning skills rather than building new ones.
The good news is that preventing the summer slide for your child does not require hours of daily work. Small, consistent efforts can make a significant difference in maintaining and improving reading or math skills. And remember, learning is most powerful when it feels like an adventure rather than an assignment! Hide the vegetables.
Encourage reading by providing access to books that match your child's interests and that are at an appropriate level. If your child enjoys animals, sports, science, history, or adventure stories, finding engaging material can increase motivation and make reading feel less like a chore. This includes comic books, graphic novels, magazines, or anything where the act of reading will spark some joy. Reading alongside your child models the behavior and further reinforces this as an enjoyable activity. This shows your child that you aren't asking them to do anything that you don't do yourself. If you are able to connect what they are reading to watching a related movie together, or going to a baseball game as a reward, you have effectively hidden the vegetables by making them taste great.
Another effective strategy is to talk to your child about what they are reading. Asking questions about characters, events, or interesting facts, encourages deeper thinking and strengthens comprehension. These conversations help your student connect with the material and develop stronger expressive language skills. A student that cannot speak a paragraph cannot be expected to write one. Just like in the Great Leaps Comprehension Development component, you don't want these conversation to feel burdensome, like a test. You want to have an enjoyable conversation with them. Encourage them to share their thoughts and show genuine interest in what they've read.
If your child has struggled with reading and is performing below expectations, structured support during the summer months can be especially valuable. Targeted reading intervention and tutoring can help student make progress and build confidence in a supportive environment. Rather than losing skills over the summer, your child will actually gain ground and return to school better prepared for the year ahead. Many Great Leaps students improve their reading level by a full year or more in just one summer.
The summer slide is real, but not inevitable. With a bit of intention and consistent, fun practice, parents can help their children maintain their hard-earned skills and start the new school year with more confidence and a positive attitude towards reading. Summer should be a time for fun and relaxation, but it should also be an opportunity for students to continue growing as readers. Those who go overboard with considerable hours of remediation will impede motivation and create the opposite outcome than what is desired. If reading becomes punishing to a student, it will most likely be met with resistance. That is natural behavior.
At Great Leaps, we have known for over 30 years that just 15 minutes a day of structured reading practice will bring significant growth over this summer. By keeping reading a part of the summer routine, and keeping it positive and reinforcing, learning loss will be prevented and success entering the upcoming school year can be expected.
