Worried about learning loss? Expert tips on keeping kids on track over the summer break
CTV
The summer school break doesn't have to be a complete vacation from learning. An educator explains how to prevent children from falling behind in literacy while still having fun.
The two-month summer break can be a welcome vacation for students, with long stretches of free time away from school.
But some parents and educators worry that they may get behind in their learning.
As most Canadian children reach the halfway point of their summer vacation, CTVNews.ca spoke to an educator about ways to combat learning loss, also known as summer slide or summer brain drain.
Children can lose a bit of knowledge or skills when they aren't doing a lot of reading and writing during the summer break, said Shelley Stagg Peterson, professor at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies and Education.
Stagg Peterson's expertise and research focuses on the loss of reading and writing skills for students from kindergarten to Grade 6.
"There's a bit of a decline when they get back to school," Stagg Peterson said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday.
"There's an expectation when teachers have a new class in September," Stagg Peterson said. "They just expect that their students, because they haven't been doing a lot of reading and writing over the summer, will need to do some catching up."
