Sure, both educators and students love the downtime that comes along with summer break. Yet annually, at the start of the new school year, most teachers are shocked when they see the first round of disappointing test scores. The initial reaction is generally, “What in the world did they do last year?” In reality, the issue is less about what they did during the previous school year, but rather about what they didn’t do during the summer break ─ i.e. limited exercise of their brains. It’s a well-known phenomenon commonly referred to as “the summer slide.”

Studies confirm it:

• According to the U.S Department of Education, on average, children are set back by 25% in reading skills each summer.
• The average student loses approximately 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months and ALL young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. 
• According to John Hopkins Center for Summer Learning, teachers typically spend four weeks re-teaching or reviewing material that students have forgotten over the summer break. But, children don’t have to slide.

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. In other words: Use it or lose it! The best way to avoid the summer slide is with brain games and exercises that build cognitive skills. Cognitive skills are the underlying mental abilities that we all need to read, think, remember, reason, and pay attention. These types of brain-building games are readily available. Many are free and easy to use at home, in the car, on vacation, and even online. Often they are so much fun that your kids won’t even realize they’re getting a mental workout!

Here are just a few brain games:

• 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 this helps: Attention, logic and 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 this helps: Visual processing speed.
• 20 Questions: Think of a person or object and give your child twenty chances to narrow down who/what you’re thinking of by asking yes or no questions. To help them improve their logic and 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 this helps: Logic, reasoning, and memory.
• Poetry: Have your child choose four words that rhyme and then ask him to use those words to create a poem or a rhyming song. Or say a word, then have him come up with another that rhymes. Keep this pattern going as long as possible, and then start over with a new word. What this helps: Auditory analysis, verbal rhythm, and memory.

Online games can be a great way to exercise the necessary cognitive skills to prevent loss of basic math facts. Check out Mathdrills.com.

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 at the appropriate reading level – not too hard and not too easy. Check out OrlandoFamilyMagazine’s “Book Buzz” recommendations or ask a librarian at the Orange County Library System.

Email orlandowindermere.fl@learningrx.net or call (407) 614-6255 to learn about LearningRx Orlando’s 8-10 week Summer Program or to get a free copy of the five-page summer slide guide.