Summer Brain Drain?
There’s a helpful article from Al Mohler over at ChristianPost.com called “Avoid Summer Brain Drain.” He points to new research suggesting that nearly all students lose up to 2.5 months of math and computational skills over the summer. Reading is another essential ability challenged by a summer spent in brain-neutral.
The data on reading ability are particularly interesting. Children who read over the summer grow in reading knowledge and comprehension. No surprise there. The really interesting part of this research is the suggestion that a wide variety of summer experiences can provide background knowledge that turns out to be indispensable to growth in the understanding of what is read. “Life experiences other than reading can lead to advantages in reading comprehension,” advised Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. “If you don’t have a reading problem or a problem with decoding . . . your ability to read a passage is dependent on having some relevant background knowledge.”
The brief column encourages parents not just to keep their kids reading, but also to add to their understanding of the world during the summer with a variety of “out there” experiences. If you’ve been looking for one more nudge to pull together some kind of productive family adventure this summer, maybe this will do it.
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