Earlier this year, a journal article was published in MDPI’s Children, which reviewed all the previously published literature that focused on children’s academic levels during and after the summer school holidays. The piece of research by E. Eglitis, A. Miatke, R. Virgara, A. Machell, T. Olds, M. Richardson and C. Maher analysed over seventy-six studies. Included in the review, titled ‘Children’s Health, Wellbeing and Academic Outcomes over the Summer Holidays,’ was Cooper et al.’s research from 1996, which was an early look at summer learning loss and arguably coined the term 'summer slide'.
Eglitis et al. reported that 89% of studies comparing academic performance during the summer versus the regular school year “predominantly revealed a dip during the summer”. However, this decline frequently occurred in numeracy rates, while literacy outcomes were mixed. The research findings confirmed that while children’s overall academic and health outcomes declined over the summer break, the extended holiday period presented “an opportunity to improve children’s health and wellbeing.”
The findings argued that literacy results could be maintained throughout the extended holiday break by practicing “procedural literacy skills” such as independent reading, journaling, or even following written instructions on board or video games.
Scholastic Australia's Kids & Family Reading Report found that 89% of children (aged 6-17) said their favourite books were the ones they had chosen for themselves, and 60% of kids enjoyed reading for fun. Without the pressure of prescribed reading or book reports to follow, a well-chosen book or series will increase the likelihood of children picking up a book without being asked.
Another study completed by Schaffner & Scheifele in 2016 looked at “the role of reading motivation as a potential determinant of losses or gains in reading competence over six weeks of summer vacation.” Like Australia, German schools have six weeks off over the summer, so this research is more comparable to most research on the subject from the United States which have three months off school over the summer season. Schaffner & Scheifele suggested that “intrinsic reading motivation before summer vacation contributed positively to both word and sentence comprehension” after the summer break. Reversely, extrinsic reading motivation did not show positive comprehension scores after summer vacation.
The takeaways from these three pieces of research on children’s literacy habits show that the ‘summer slide’ may not be as pronounced in reading and comprehension levels as in other fundamental outcomes, such as mathematics. This could be attributed to ongoing efforts by parents and teachers to encourage a love of books and reading in their children and pupils, thus ensuring the six weeks without mandated texts isn’t costly to the child’s academic progress, but rather an opportunity to increase intrinsic motivation towards reading and learning.
Nurture this motivation by encouraging children to choose their own holiday activities from a selection of procedural literacy practices, such as choosing a bedtime story that the family can read together over the holidays - see our next blog post on Summer Holiday Activities for some inspiration.
Written by: Kimberly Cullinan, November 2024