Kids across the nation are closing their books on a long school year; these next couple months are all about sunshine, pool days, and freedom from school. Why then should parents urge their children to keep learning over the summer?
Many studies have shown that learning over the summer is critical for maintaining knowledge from the previous school year. A study from the RAND Corporation found that when children did not do any academic review over the summer, they lost a significant amount of knowledge from the math and reading categories. Another article numerically equates this lost knowledge to a 25% decrease from overall learning throughout the school year.
If you are a past or current client at Little Listeners, you have access to an incredible program called HearBuilder, which can be accessed online. This is a great resource during the summer months. HearBuilder helps to specifically reinforce primary auditory processing skills, specifically those of attending, listening, storing, and recalling.”
As an additional incentive to keep Hear Builder usage high over summer, Little Listeners is having a contest starting on Monday, June 4th and ending on Friday, August 3rd. The top three kids who use Hear Builder the most over the summer will each win an awesome prize. A white board in the office will be updated to include information about the contest prizes as well as who is in the lead.
In addition to HearBuilder, here are some activities to help maintain learning over the summer:
- For a fun outdoor activity, go to a pool and give directions to your child that involve multiple steps (move this toy there, swim to that side, etc.). If the pool is noisy, it allows your child to practice listening in noise processing skills.
- Find a few books that a group of friends can read over summer. Then, set a time for a group discussion of the book. If this is not an option, make or find a list of reading comprehension questions online that your child can discuss with you.
- Work on math problems while throwing a ball outside. After a certain number of catches, solve a math problem. Or allow for a dance break or something similar after a certain number of math problems are completed.
So, remember summer learning is essential. Keep working on your HearBuilder program. Ready, set, summer learning!
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