Six shocking affects of summer learning loss – and how you can fix it

Have you been hearing the terms ‘summer slide’, ‘brain drain’ or ‘learning loss’ in the news lately? We definitely have. Learning loss is the loss of knowledge and skills that children suffer from not practicing their literacy skills all through the long summer holidays. In fact it’s one of the main reasons why DiaryZapp even came into existence when little Ella was struggling to keep up at school after six weeks off…

Many children suffer with learning loss when they return to school after the long summer holidays and it can be incredibly damaging to their confidence as well as their academic progression. Seeing her struggle to keep up with her friends, whilst being unable to understand concepts that she’d forgotten was horrible to be privy to. It made me delve further into the topic of ‘summer slide’  where I uncovered the following facts. I was shocked…

1. On average, students lose 2 months of reading skills over the summer.
2. It can take six weeks to get students to recap on what they learnt before the summer holidays making them fall majorly behind in deadlines for the coming school year
3. It can take two whole months for a child’s brain to get back into learning at the same speed as it was before the holidays
4. Learning loss is even more notable in children under 10, as they’re unable to get stuck in with activities surrounding work experience and volunteering.
5. General exercise levels can also take a hit which adversely affects literacy skills, as exercise is known to boost academic performance.
6. By the end of Year 6, if children are not practicing literacy skills over the summer they end up nearly three grades behind ones that do.

All of this learning loss in just six weeks? Phew well after that we definitely need to share some good news!

It only needs between 2-3 hours every week during the course of the summer holidays to prevent the onset of learning loss.

That’s nothing, literally 20 minutes every day.

We’re firm believers that kids need their school holidays to run around, have adventures and most of all have fun, and this is why we’re proud that DiaryZapp bridges the gap.

DiaryZapp boosts the retention of words and practices literacy skills on a daily basis whilst placing the emphasis firmly on the fun factor and the celebration of each child’s every day antics. Ella loves it, Noah’s happy and we have Zappicon noises being recreated everywhere… as long as they’re smiling I’m a happy mum.