Little brains can't be put on hold for summer

Summertime is supposed to be when the livin' is easy. For kids, freed from the constraints of school, that means playing with friends, splashing in pools and dreaming up ways to make sure September never comes.

But something else happens, too. Some kids will keep reading books and have daily enriching experiences with their parents over the holidays. Others, left more to their own devices for the summer, will forget some of what they learned before the break. It's known as the "summer setback" and, according to a new study, its severity depends on family income and education levels.

Here's what the study, funded by Ontario's Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, found: children whose parents' education stopped at high school will lose a month of their literacy skills over the summer. Children whose parents have bachelor's degrees will actually see their reading skills improve by a month. And those in families with even more education -- doctors and lawyers, for example -- will gain two months on their peers.

The difference of a month or two in reading skills may not sound like much, but it is -- and it adds up quickly to big problems for children growing up in less-educated, less-affluent families. Before classes break for the summer, these kids already tend to be months behind their peers in wealthier, university-educated families. They can little afford to have this gap further widen over the summer.

A reading gap of a few months in Grade 1, if it continues, can leave students a whole year behind their peers by Grade 3. No child's future should be predetermined at such a young age and by their family's socioeconomic status.

"Our study should alert Canadians to the prevalence of summer learning loss and the role of non-school time in generating achievement gaps," the authors say. It certainly should. We must do more to make sure this achievement gap -- whether it occurs during the school year or the summer break -- starts to close.

A good place to start would be to expand enrichment opportunities for children who need them most. This study has already proven that summer literacy camps, targeted to low-income, struggling readers, can create significant improvements in reading skills in as little as two weeks.

In light of this study's troubling findings, the province needs to increase summer literacy opportunities. It should seek out community groups that can deliver enriching (and fun) summer programming and remind all parents about the importance of stopping at the library on the way to the splash pad.

Little brains can't be put on hold for the summer.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 27, 2012 A11