What is the Summer Slide?

by Nola Renz, Community Impact Manager - Early Grade Excellence

When you hear these words what do you think of?  Your mind probably slips right over to the slide in the local swimming pool or at the local park or perhaps the slide at the playground at your child’s elementary school.  Unfortunately, that’s not what we are referring to. The “Summer Slide” we are referring to is what happens when kids stop learning over the summer, which leads to a significant loss in reading and math skills. And what we see is that while all children can be impacted, the highest impact is on the children from low-income households who have little or no access to books or summer learning programs. 

Imagine two students. Both enter the summer break with nine months of learning under their belts. While one has books at home, makes trips to the library and participates in summer programs, the other does not. There are no books at home and no resources to get them to the library or pay for summer programs. The child who reads during the summer and goes to summer programs is more likely to retain what they've learned during the school year, and even make gains over the summer months. Meanwhile, the child who doesn't have access to books or other learning opportunities can lose an average of more than two months in reading achievement in the summer.

What can we do?
The most important thing is to make sure that kids are reading. Many low-income families don’t have books at home. Through United Way of Pierce County’s Launch Into Literacy program, we are collecting books for children who don’t have any. A gift of just $3 can provide a book for a child.

For children that have access to books, start by making sure the books are at their reading level and ask them questions about what they are reading.  To make sure the book is at an appropriate level  for your child use the five finger rule. Have the child read 100 words from a book and raise one finger for each word that is too difficult to figure out. If the child has more than five fingers up, the book is probably too hard for them.  You want the reading to be challenging but not frustrating for your child.

The next thing is to talk with your child about what they are reading and ask questions about the story; this helps them develop their comprehension or understanding of what they are reading and is one of the most powerful things to help improve the child’s reading ability.

Another great tool for parents is to do a family project. This might be having a “family store” where kids buy and sell things in the family with some type of currency exchange (monopoly money can be used, or pennies, or create your own money). This creates hands-on learning opportunities at home. 

One of the most important things you can do as a parent is to learn with your child. You don’t have to be an expert at anything, simply show your child that you are interested and want to learn and then push forward to learn things with them.  Go to the library together, pick out books and let your child see you reading also. When you decide to work together to learn something be excited about both of your progress and find fun ways to celebrate and share what you have learned.