BRAIN VACATION
TIPS ON HOW TO AVOID ‘SUMMER DUMBER SYNDROME’
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As August cools off into September, bringing with it the annual return to schedules, structure and schoolwork, we might be asking our suntanned selves: Are we ending summer dumber than we started it?
It isn’t that our IQs are dropping faster than the leaves, more that a return to routine after a summer of freewheeling is a hard enough adjustment for adults, but even tougher for kids. “It’s a psychological issue; everyone deals with it,” says Dave Farrow, an expert on brain training and the Guinness World Record holder for greatest memory. Farrow notes studies have found students can lose up to one grade point when they return to school after summer holidays. “(Kids) haven’t experienced the whole, ‘OK, summertime is over, now we have to get back to work’ feeling often enough and oftentimes they don’t have the skills to handle it,” Farrow says.
If they aren’t ready to sit in a desk and follow rules again, young students can be moody and irritable after that first bell rings.
“Teachers make judgments within the first months that are going to affect how they treat this student for the year,” Farrow says.
Farrow, along with ADHD expert Shanna Pearson, have advice on not only getting kids back into learning mode come September, but getting your grown-up mind on track, too. That’s because no matter your age, a big change in your routine can throw your work into upheaval.
“Summer dumber syndrome” has been around for a long time, Farrow says, and it’s not unlike the trouble some people have with “seasonal affective disorder” when winter imposes itself.
“Especially with youth, it has become worse because of technology,” he says. “There’s not as much physical activity ... all that has kind of conspired to make things worse more recently than they ever have in our history.”
While a child who is an avid reader keeps their synapses firing by consuming a few page-turners over summer, many kids don’t get the kind of mental stimulation their brains crave when school is out.
“Your brain becomes very lazy if it’s not used and exercised in different ways,” Farrow says, citing the neuroscience theory of brain plasticity. “The person who is always trying new hobbies, always trying new things, their brain is sharper and they’re essentially keeping their brain healthy and young for their whole life.”
Summer hobbies for kids “absolutely help their performance in school come September,” Farrow says. “Anything that keeps them mentally active, keeps them off the video games and the pure mental junk food.”
That could be something like joining a book club at the public library or starting up one of Farrow’s memory clubs. But keeping the brain active can also mean learning new sports.
“You don’t realize how many neurons are involved with learning to keep your balance or learning to hit a ball with a bat,” Farrow says. “That is a learning process as powerful and as useful to the brain as learning your ABCs or learning a formula.” And that’s true for adults, as well as kids, Pearson says.
“Everyone always asks, ‘Are you sure I can do this? I’m not too old?’” Pearson says.
“I’m always saying, ‘It’s been debunked. You can teach an old dog new tricks.’ ”
A summer of late nights of video games and lazy afternoons on the Internet doesn’t mean your young student is doomed never to get into university, but it could take its toll.
“The worst thing you can do for a kid is just let them be free and have no routine besides meals,” Pearson says. “Because then when school starts, they’re expected just to jump in full swing and there’s no way that they can do that.”
Farrow suggests adding structure back, through set dinner times and chores, for example, in the weeks leading up to the first day of school.
“Don’t put your vacation time too close to going back to school,” he advises. “They’re going to feel depressed because of such a huge transition ... you want them always to be looking forward to (school), not regretting it.”
Even if the neurons are feeling rusty as the days start to get shorter and the nights cooler, Farrow suggests it doesn’t take much work to make a difference in your brain.
Spending 10 minutes a day on a “mentally stimulating task” or purposeful activity, like practising that new hobby — or his trademark skill, memorizing the order of a deck of cards — can help keep the brain alert.
“Doing a little bit every day keeps (students) so sharp,” he says, “that when they get back in school, it’s almost as if they hit the ground running when everyone else is still mentally sluggish.”
When it’s time to get back to reality after a summer of hanging out at the cabin, on the patio or restoring a flooded basement, a return to normalcy isn’t always so normal.
“People get very disjointed and overwhelmed from, ‘I’m not even sure what time I’m supposed to get up today,’” says ADHD coach Shanna Pearson.
“Then your entire day gets knocked off because there is no schedule.” While Pearson works specifically with ADHD adult clients, she says those without ADHD can experience similar feelings of being thrown off course due to a “state change” like summer vacation or a natural disaster.
Here’s her advice for staying productive when the outside world is working against you or beckoning you back to the patio.
Especially when you’re on vacation, stay goal-oriented.
While taking a hiatus from work, it’s easy to give your brain too much of a break, and that can mean it’s hard to catch up later. Pearson suggests pursuing personal goals during those times, for example, about finances, health or relationships. Make sure they’re measurable, like learning to meditate for 15 minutes per day, or going out with a partner twice a week.
“With our clients, that’s been proven to keep people really on their game, regardless of what they’re working toward,” she says.
Pick a time of day where you can be doing the things you need to reach your goals.
Figure out what time of day you have the most energy to accomplish tasks, Pearson says. Don’t put pressure on yourself to be at your most productive between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. if your “power time” is naturally later at night.
That way, “regardless of what’s happening in the outside world, you’re basically in control of what you’re doing and how productive you are.”
Break it into steps, and work on one step every day.
Assuming you actually want to achieve those goals you’ve set, Pearson says the key is to break each goal into at least 10 steps. Then, work on one of those steps every day at your “power time”.
“You will actually quite likely achieve what you want to achieve,” Pearson says. “And that’s going to really get people pumped.”