The summer slide ignores other learning experiences

In the last few weeks, talk shows have featured experts warning about the “summer slide” — a term used to describe the loss of academic skills over the summer holiday — and ads for camps and tutoring services have been offering summer programs to help combat it. If parents hadn’t worried about it before the onslaught, many of us have undoubtedly started to wonder how we can make sure our children don’t fall behind by September.

Research around the slide, however, isn’t as straightforward as most commonly portrayed.

While looking into it, I came across an interesting article at PsychologyToday.com titled “Facts and fiction about the socalled ‘summer slide’ ” that ad- dressed many of my own questions as a parent and an educator.

Peter Gray, Ph.D., a research professor at Boston College, reviewed a number of studies and concluded, “All in all, the research indicates that, as measured by standard academic achievement tests, there is at least as much academic gain during the summer vacation as there is loss.” He did note that, “… students from poor families gain less and lose more over the summer, on tests, than do those from families that are more well off.”

When it came to reading, “… most studies show either no significant change or an increase in reading ability over the summer.” This made sense to me because for children who love to read, summer is a chance to read even more. For those not so keen on what they have been offered at school, it might be a chance to delve into a new genre.

Mathematics was more complicated. The research seemed to show that students declined in calculation skills but gained in reasoning skills. This could be because calculation skills aren’t usually practised outside of a school context while reasoning skills are best developed through real life experiences. Gray pointed out that skills learned by rote, like multiplication facts, are often lost when not rehearsed.

While many commercial programs promise to combat summer slide, parents need to ask what types of skills they are trying to address. Spending all summer practising calculation skills and missing out on the experiences that can develop reasoning doesn’t seem like a good trade-off to me.

Balance is key. Students should be able to perform basic calculations with competence as well as show reasoning ability. I believe in a judicious mix of traditional and creative methods. Free online resources such as TVO’s mPower (its award-winning online math game for K to Grade 6 students) can help. As the summer begins, it would seem prudent to plan a few activities to minimize the sliding of some academic skills. Counteracting it, however, shouldn’t come at the expense of other skills best developed by truly experiencing the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

Catherine Little is a Toronto-based educator, consultant and writer. She was a consultant in the development of TVO’s mPower.