Ready or not, Summer is here!
Summers are the most awaited months of the year, atleast for our schoolers. However, lurking around the joys of Summer is the threat of what we call ‘The Summer brain drain’. This phenomenon takes place when your child is not engaging in the right activities all through the holidays leading to a significant learning loss. As parents, that is nothing short of a nightmare, right?
So, gear up, as this blog is your ultimate guide to summer brain drain and how to avoid it from happening to your child this summer.
Understanding Summer Brain-drain.
What is it?
Summer brain drain, popularly also called as summer slide or summer learning loss, is a cognitive phenomenon where a decline in skills and intellectual abilities occurs. In simpler terms, summer slide occurs when a child loses a significant amount of knowledge or skills gained while not at school. The cognitive setback can lead to poor academic performance and widen the learning gap.
While summer breaks and summer vacations are essential to rejuvenate, It is also important to upskill. Many a time, children forget content or regress during the summer gap. The good news however, is there are several ways to tackle this setback and prevent summer brain drain.
Why is parent involvement essential to prevent learning loss in summer?
Learning loss in summer commonly occurs as the children do not get to follow their usual school routine. The involvement of parents is imperative in preventing learning loss during summers. There are several ways parents can take part in their children’s activities during summer to avoid summer brain drain. These include,
- Helping them engage in learning a new skill such as a new language, Instrument, Sport, IT skills, Art
- Encouraging the habit of reading. Parents can not only make children read books but also read along with them and work on reading comprehension too!
- Educational Outings: Visit to museums, space centers, science fairs.
- Monitoring progress: Keep track of your children’s learning levels and ensure they stay on track through virtual tutorials or open discussions of what they learnt in the year.
- Planning family gatherings or trips together. This includes holiday itineraries, places to visit, meals and daily schedules.
Why are children susceptible to learning loss during the summer months?
Summer brain drain is a common phenomenon, especially among children going to school. Children are susceptible to learning loss during the summer months for various reasons. Some of these reasons may include,
Routine disruption: The structured routine of a regular school day is disrupted during the summers, causing them to disconnect from routine habits or time management.
Lack of educational resources: During summer holidays, children do not get access to educational materials and resources like books, curriculum activities, fun learning classes, educational programs and can hinder learning.
Lack of social interaction: Summer vacations mean no exposure to the vibrant environment of school. As a result, children do not get to spend time with friends and teachers that would usually stimulate their minds.
Reduced Reading: Most kids prefer staying clear of books and reading during the summers. This lack of reading activity causes a decline in their reading speed and fluency which ultimately adds to the learning loss.
What do summer brain drain statistics say?
- As per Brookings, A study conducted on half a million students studying between grades 2-9 from 2008-2012 showed that, on average, students lost 25-30% of what they learnt in schools during summer.
- According to the National Summer Learning Association, 9 in 10 teachers have to spend 3 weeks at least teaching previous lessons at the beginning of the new school year.
- Another study revealed that the achievement of students across various subject areas, grades, and terms declined in the summers.
- As per Scientific American, children forget knowledge of worth 3 months during the summer break.
How does the summer brain-drain impact my child?
Brain Drain Causes and effects on Children
Some common causes of brain drain in children may include,
- Disruption of daily academic routine
- Lack of academic resources
- Reduced interactions with teachers and friends
- Reduced reading
- Decreased participation in educational activities
Summer slide or summer brain drain can have several effects on children. Some of the common effects of summer brain drain may include the following,
- Loss of knowledge learnt in school
- Academic regression
- A lack of motivation
- No interest in returning to the academic environment
- An achievement gap
- Poor performance in subjects involving Logic & Reasoning
- Reading gap
Brain drain vs brain gain
Brain Drain
Brain drain refers to the academic and cognitive regression due to inactivity or under-stimulation during the holidays. This can make it very difficult for children to cope up once they resume school.
Brain Gain
Literally enough, Summer brain gain is the reversal potion. It refers to the set of activities that are performed to help children grow personally and academically. Summer brain gain includes various steps that are taken to nurture the academic skills and knowledge of children during summer break while they are away from school.
As a result of brain gain, positive effects in children can be seen. These effects of summer brain gain include,
- Academic improvement
- Narrowed achievement gap
- Excitement or motivation to learn
- Returning to academic activities positively
- Improved cognitive development
- Improved and Applied sense of logic & reasoning
- Better reading skills
Brain Training by Brainnovation focuses on helping you and your child prevent summer brain drain through a set of activities, that helps enhance cognitive skills enabling stronger performance in the class room, and outside too!
Identifying Signs of Summer Learning Loss
Look out for these indicators in your child:
- Trouble reading with the same speed, interest or fluency
- Difficulty in understanding vocabulary and concepts
- A lack of interest in reading books
- Spelling errors or poor sentence formation
- A drop in Problem solving abilities
- Negative attitude towards work
- Difficulty in getting back to academic routine
- Poor or foggy memory
- Feeling anxious or pressured
- Requiring help from adults to solve day to day problems
As a parent, it is absolutely essential to recognize these signs of summer learning loss. Having the right knowledge about these signs of summer brain drain is essential to address it as early as possible. At Brainnovation, our experts help you understand the signs of your child’s summer learning loss and help you address the problem through brain training and various other activities.
How to avoid summer brain drain?
Try the following with your child.
1. Encourage reading
Reading is one of the best ways to engage children during summer breaks and improve their reading skills. Parents can help children by preventing summer learning loss by cultivating the habit of reading in them. To encourage reading, you can make your child join a book club, read with them together for 15 to 20 minutes a day, take them to a library, discuss books with them, or even ask them to make a book report. Reading can be encouraged by making children read books, articles, blogs, newspapers or even listen to audiobooks. You can also make your child participate in reading challenges or take one with them.
2. Engage in Educational Activities
To prevent summer brain drain, you can encourage your child to take part in fun educational activities. The various educational activities may include participating in a science fair or a science experiment, taking nature walks, using educational apps, etc. You can also take your child on educational trips to museums, factories or science exhibitions. Additionally, learning a new skill, such as playing an instrument.
3. Limit Screen Time
Studies have revealed that too much of screen time has a negative impact on a child’s performance academically. Too much screen time affects the learning ability, concentration, memory and physical health of children, especially during the summers. To avoid summer learning loss, it is essential to limit your child’s screen time. To limit your child’s screen time during summer, you can follow these alternative tips,
- Create a strict schedule for screen time
- Make your child practise fun activities like art and board games
- Please encourage them to go outdoors to play sports
- Ask them to read something
- Play along with them
- Send them on playdates
- Ask them to exercise
4. Enrol in Summer Programs
The best way to avoid summer learning loss and help polish your child’s skills, knowledge and memory is to enrol them in summer programs like summer camps, summer classes or summer workshops. These summer programs are focused on helping your child by focusing on their physical health and cognitive skills. Summer programs are also ideal as they not only open the doors to new learning opportunities but also new friendships, thus helping build social skills.
To find the right summer program for your child, you can look for classes locally or ask someone you know for a recommendation. You can also use social media platforms to find the right classes to enrol your child. You can help your child prevent summer slide or summer learning loss by enrolling them in classes that align with their learning interests.
5. Create a Learning Schedule
Summers are meant to be enjoyed. But staying away from learning for too long can prove to be dangerous. Hence, to ensure your child learns during summer, you can create a learning schedule for them. You can plan fun activities throughout the day or week by making calendars. You can also call your kids’ friends to participate in the fun learning activities so that your child enjoys learning. Including puzzles, quizzes, board games, reading competitions, writing tests, etc, into their daily or weekly schedule is a good place to start.
How Brain Training Can Help With Summer Brain Drain
Brain training is a simple yet powerful way of improving the core ability of your child to learn easily and quickly. Brain training helps your child upskill and improve their cognitive skills by using a series of mental exercises that are carefully designed to help them rewire, transform, and establish new positive behaviours, actions and thoughts. Brain training is one of the best ways through which you can not only help your child improve their skills and knowledge but also perform better academically in school.
Through brain training, personalized brain training experts collaborate to identify the cognitive weaknesses of the child and formulate mental health exercises around them to turn those weaknesses into strengths. At Brainnovation, we provide brain drain solutions to everyone by helping them identify the gaps in their skills and making them their strengths into result-oriented methods.
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Conclusion
Summer should be a time for fun and learning new exciting things you do not usually get time for. By keeping your child engaged, you can prevent the dreaded summer brain-drain. The academic and cognitive gap can be consciously bridged.
To say bye bye to summer learning loss, Brainnovation brings you the best summer accelerated program for 5 days a week, 2 hours a day for 8 weeks. This summer learning program by Brainnovation is one of a kind that helps your child learn and upskill while being fun. From reading and writing to mathematics skills, your child is going to learn something new every day. So, do not miss out on this fun learning opportunity because your child’s skills cannot wait.
