What on earth is a summer slide?

‘Summer slide’ refers to the loss of around 2-3 months of the previous school year’s reading and learning gains over the long summer holidays. It’s to do with consistency: most learners experience a summer slide to some extent, but those who tend to go most of the summer holiday without reading experience it most of all, and see the most skills eroded and learning progress lost.

We’ve known about it for a while. The first comprehensive research on the phenomenon was conducted in the mid-1990s, and since then, preventing summer slide has been acknowledged as a major hurdle for educators and parents alike.

But how does it actually happen – and how can parents boost reading motivation to keep kids reading over summer, and stop that decline in its tracks?

But it isn’t just about the start of the year…

It all starts when learners head back into class at the beginning of Term 1 and are confronted with more complex and more demanding schoolwork. Here’s where we see the first demographic split: those who have read enough over summer to preserve the previous year’s reading gains and can hit the ground running, and those who haven’t read much over the holidays, and are entering the new school year at a 2-3 month deficit.

Some of the second group will be able to put extra effort into learning to catch up, but this requires a lot of self-motivation and requires having the confidence to approach class teachers and ask for help. This isn’t so easy when you’re both new to each other, as many student-teacher relationships are at the beginning of Term 1.

This means that those learners who’ve had low reading motivation who’re not read over summer enter the new year with a reading and learning deficit. If that goes unchecked, it can put them weeks of skill growth being their summer-reading peers by the end of the school year. And as another summer goes by with up to 2-3 months of skill erosion, that means that those lost weeks get doubled, and the reading and learning deficit becomes entrenched.

This is why preventing summer slide and keeping reading motivation going over summer is so vitally important: it’s not just about the start of this term, but the start of the new term after that, and the new term after that, and the new term after that.

So why do some kids stop reading over summer?

Cause 1: Preference

It’s Christmas! It’s summer! There’s a whole world of alternative things to do that might feel a whole lot more fun and worth spending your holiday on than reading, from catching up on TV and movies to hanging out with friends. And in the case of video games and social media, they’re designed to have a time-sink mechanic to them, meaning they’re difficult to put down even if they want to.

It may even just be that reading is conceived of as boring by the student in question – and unfortunately, a school year full of books they didn’t quite feel interested in can foster those feelings easily.

Cause 2: Skills and needs

Some students find it difficult to read independently. They may not quite have garnered the skill set or even the confidence to tackle books and school work alone yet: we can see this frequently in students who have a learning difference like dyslexia, or have come to learn in English from other language or dialect backgrounds (EAL/Ds), who may not be able to read and comprehend independently in English yet.

Cause 3: Negative emotions

Other learners experience low reading motivation across the summer holidays due to how reading makes them feel. It goes deeper than having a preference for other kinds of leisure activities, or a material inability to access the text on a comprehension level: this avoidance is an emotionally-based aversion rooted in previous experiences of reading, because negative reading feedback has made them feel anxious, embarrassed, or like a poor reader in the past.

But before we think on solutions, we have to talk about material causes for low reading motivation too.

The impact of the summer slide is felt more in some households than others: students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds are more likely to experience the summer slide than their peers. Research demonstrates that gaps in cognitive skills based on socio-economic status grow far faster when school is out for the summer than during the school year.

This indicates that schools are fulfilling an essential role in ‘filling the gaps’ for learners who might struggle to find the space, motivation and materials to read and learn due to their home environment.

It makes sense: data reveals that around 40% of kids in Australia have fewer than 10 books at home. And it’s difficult for students to motivate themselves to read at home for pleasure when the pool of books available to them is so small. In many low-book households, these volumes may be shared with siblings, not of the right reading age, or have been read many times already – making it extremely difficult to sustain reading motivation across the summer holidays.

But what can parents do to boost reading motivation whilst class is out?

Solution 1: Support learners to choose reading.

📚 Low reading motivation over the summer holidays might just mean that you’ve got a selective reader on your hands. When was the last time they chose a book for themselves? When it comes to gifting this year, let children and young people ask for titles, or gift bookstore vouchers instead: if we let interest lead the way, we know we’re choosing the right books for the job.

📚 Help learners join a library! Bonus points if this library is local, and within walking distance— that cuts down on transport costs, and makes book borrowing totally free for households who are impacted by the cost of living increase. You can also check if there’s an Imagination Library Program in your area – and some schools and early years settings run free holiday loan libraries, so that students can access new reading materials during the break.

📚 Excessive screen time can cut into reading motivation in a big way, as well as have negative impacts on mental and physical health. Set a positive example by trading your own screens for paper books during holiday leisure time, and encourage students to digital detox where they can. If younger learners are used to being rewarded with screen time for chores or good grades, then offer reading-based rewards, or the opportunity to read together instead.

📚 And everybody likes it when their efforts are recognised! Boost reading motivation by adding tracker charts and rewards into the mix – prizes can be as simple as festive treat foods or a negotiated bedtime, and they can be key in getting students make a push to read more. 

Solution 2: Get to the bottom of support needs, and fill them!

📚 Are unsupported neurodiverse differences, skill gaps or learning differences the root of low reading motivation? A simple conversation beginning “Hey, you don’t read so much anymore. Why is that?” can be a powerful and very revealing thing.

Encourage open conversation, and be frank about the fact that you’re not looking to sanction them for not reading. Instead, listen out for complaints that line up with the Australia Dyslexia Association’s Could it be Dyslexia?checklist, as well as any skill gaps you want to talk to their class teachers about in January.

📚 Or your learner may already have an identified literacy or language need that’s not being supported over the summer holidays. Have they lost access to reading support they’ve been using in class all year, such as text-to-speech software or a reading pen?

You can step in to support them temporarily so that you can read together at Christmas, but re-establishing independence is vital: look for assistive technology loan services through schools or libraries. Some families even choose to give learners the gift of reading with their very own reading pen.

📚 And another way to support is combatting learned helplessness. If children or young people consistently struggle with reading, the situation may begin to feel hopeless to them. Some believe they have no potential to read at all, and some just believe they cannot read without help from an adult.

Again, establishing independence is key: look for reading supports like reading pens that put learners in the driving seat again, and help rekindle their confidence in their skills.

Solution 3: Understand reading stressors, and tackle the sources.

📚 Something that goes hand in hand with skill gaps and low reading confidence is reading anxiety. Struggling to read means learners can become embarrassed, frustrated, start to experience anxiety around books. But a little extra support with words, the right teacher guidance and reading support can help them realise that they’re capable of reading independently and confidently.

📚 But a reading motivation slump isn’t always reading-based. It might be a result of generalised school stress, too. That stress may be linked to schoolwork issues, sensory experiences, or something else entirely – but it’s especially prevalent in neurodivergent learners. Talk to students about their stress levels, and encourage them to open up if they’re experiencing any kind of overwhelm.

Headspace has some tips on supporting young people with school stress, but remember to work with teachers, in-school support and healthcare professionals where you need to.

📚 And pay attention during those conversations for evidence that points past stress and towards school burnout. Burnout is late-stage, unsupported stress; a state of exhaustion that results from ongoing stress immersion without support or intervention.

It can manifest as difficulties concentrating, mental health concerns and challenges in adaptation – all of which create an emotional environment that makes it difficult to feel reading motivation. Burnout requires long-term support, so again, reach out to teachers and bring in healthcare professionals at the appropriate point.

➡️ Kickstart Term 1 with a reading pen!

When we create an environment where there’s reading motivation and the confidence to do so, summer skill loss gets cut off at the pass – so learners are able to head back after the holidays able to hit the ground running. But even if they don’t have much reading motivation over the summer holidays, all isn’t lost. It just means we have to find a way of supporting reading that helps them feel able to read for pleasure, so they can overcome the new term’s challenges independently and confidently.

That’s where reading pens come in.

Reading pens provide learners with lightning-fast text-to-speech reading support that transforms the text on the page to clear, customisable audio feedback supporting their comprehension, their decoding skills, and their ability to read by themselves. Some even offer language-learning support, or a zero-storage design ready to be used in exams. And the best part? They’re rechargeable, durable and perfectly pocket-sized too, meaning that they’re perfect for travelling between home and school when class is back on, as well as the ideal companion for curling up with a book this festive season.

You can find out which reading pen suits your needs at Scanning Pens’ super-handy Pen Guide Quiz!

When reading feels possible, enjoyable and stress is kept out of the equation, reading motivation gets a huge boost – meaning a big summer slide is a thing of the past.

From all of us at Scanning Pens Australia, we wish each and every learner a fun, relaxing summer holiday and festive season. 💙