Third grade teacher Alyssa Call got a bit of a shock when she returned to her classroom in the fall and saw the test scores of her students. She had taught several of the children the year before, as a second grade teacher, and she knew their scores had fallen considerably after taking nearly three months off for summer vacation. It’s a phenomenon so well known that teachers across the nation refer to it as the “Summer Slide.”
“It’s just kind of accepted in the teaching world,” says Call. “Most of us know the students are going to come back in the fall, and they’re not going to be at the level they were when they left in the spring, but it’s still sometimes shocking when you look at their test scores and see just how far they’ve fallen. The first month of school is usually spent refreshing what they should have remembered.”
Studies confirm what Call and other teachers see in millions of American school kids each fall:
- The average student loses approximately 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. (Research compiled for an Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Conference report.)
- Teachers typically spend four weeks re-teaching or reviewing material that students have forgotten over summer break, according to John Hopkins Center for Summer Learning.
- Research shows ALL young people experience learning losses when they don’t engage in educational activities during the summer.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” says Dr. Ken Gibson, author of Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake up the Smart in Your Child. “Think of it like this: The brain is like the body. If you exercise it, you improve it, but if you let it sit idle, it’s going to lose ability.”
Summer educational activities: Brain games and brain training
To avoid the Summer Slide, Gibson recommends brain games and exercises that target cognitive skills, the underlying skills needed to learn.
Thirteen-year-old Tyler knows the power of building those cognitive skills. He was labeled “special needs” and tried more than a dozen reading programs before he took an intensive brain training course at LearningRx. His family says they saw life-changing improvements.
“Before the training, I would sit right beside him for at least three hours a night making sure he did his homework,” says his mom. “Now, he does it all on his own!”
One way to target weak mental skills quickly and effectively is through an intensive LearningRx brain training program, says Tanya Mitchell, Vice President of Research & Development for LearningRx. “With our intense game-like exercises we work on brain skills like logic & reasoning, attention, memory, processing speed, and visual and auditory processing. But, to help prevent the summer slide, parents and kids can use free, fun games and exercises at home, in the car, and even online.”
Summer educational activities you can do at home:
Here are just a few of the free and fun brain training games Mitchell recommends:
- Mental Tic Tac Toe: Similar to traditional Tic Tac Toe, this game uses a “mental” grid numbered 1 to 9. Players remember where their opponent has already been and call out an unoccupied space. The player who calls an occupied space loses.
What it helps: Attention, logic & reasoning, and working memory - Needle in a Haystack: Take a page from a newspaper and time your child as she circles all occurrences of a specific letter. Focus on increasing both accuracy and speed. What it helps: Visual processing speed
- 20 Questions: Think of a person or object and give your child 20 chances to narrow down what you’re thinking of by asking yes or no questions. To help them improve their logic & reasoning, teach them to strategize by using questions that will significantly narrow down the categories, such as “Are they alive?” or “Is it bigger than you?” What it helps: Logic, reasoning, memory
- Poetry: Have your child choose four words that rhyme and then ask them to use those words to create a poem or a rhyming song. Or say a word, then have them come up with another that rhymes. Keep this pattern going as long as possible, then start with a new word. What it helps: Auditory analysis, verbal rhythm, memory
Simply getting your child to read every day is another powerful way to slow the Summer Slide. According to Scholastic Parents Online, research shows that reading just six books during the summer can keep a struggling reader from regressing. When choosing the six, make sure they’re the right level—not too hard and not too easy.
Call says she’ll stress the importance of summer reading to her students before they head out for vacation. She also says that any reading or learning program that rewards or excites the kids will be beneficial.
To find out what personal brain training can do for your struggling student, visit www.learningrx.com/fort-collins/ .
Improved cognitive skills make reading easier. And that makes life easier. Call 970-672-2020, mention this ad, and get your child’s cognitive skills tested for only $124.50 (that’s 50% off the regular price!)
About LearningRx
LearningRx, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is the largest one-on-one brain training organization in the world. With 80 Centers in the U.S., and locations in over 40 countries around the globe, LearningRx has helped more than 100,000 individuals and families sharpen their cognitive skills to help them think faster, learn easier, and perform better. Their on-site programs partner every client with a personal brain trainer to keep clients engaged, accountable, and on-task-a key advantage over online-only brain exercises. Their pioneering methods have been used in clinical settings for over 35 years and have been verified as beneficial in peer-reviewed research papers and journals. To learn more about LearningRx research results, programs and their 9.6 out of 10 client satisfaction rating, visit www.learningrx.com/fort-collins/.
