Why do we need to keep kids reading over summer? The experts weigh in…

Congratulations! Parents, it’s time to celebrate: your young learners have made it to the end of school for the year, and the long summer is stretching out in front of them. It’s time to enjoy the good weather, as well as relax and take a break from the pressures of classroom life.

…They’ve earned it, and it’s time to make the most of it. But when it comes to reading and learning, can that period of pure relaxation sometimes come at a cost?

We’ve asked five of the (very hypothetical) experts in your child’s life about why reading over summer is so important, and what you might be able to do to keep them turning the pages until school starts again.

Let’s begin. ??

Expert #1: ?? The Teacher

Kids who don’t read over summer end up losing up to 20% of the previous school year’s reading gains , and that can put them at a disadvantage when they head back to into the classroom. That’s a lot of catching up to do when school starts again, and it can impact their confidence and their grades in an ongoing way. The key to beating the slide is keeping reading going, in whatever form you can, to ensure that those skills don’t erode from weeks of under-use.

Expert #2: ?? The School Mental Health Lead

Reading has a lot of mental health benefits . It can help reduce stress and beat some of the boredom that quite often creeps in toward the end of the summer break. It’s also a good way of supporting children and young people in developing empathy. Any time things feel a little stressful, books also provide a vital form of escapism for readers— which is vital in the era of doomscrolling .

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Expert #3: ?? The Librarian

It’s always a good idea to keep reading going, but when school doors are closed, it’s not as easy to have that ongoing access to books. You can join your local library for a low-cost way of opening up access to new reading materials, and try not to worry too much about the reading materials they’re choosing: a book on football, comics or a joke book count as reading just the same as a novel or a textbook does.

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Expert #4: ??? The Careers Tutor

Maintaining a reading habit can also help learners out when they’re leaving education and looking for work. Sure, there are the academic benefits to consider— larger vocabularies, better grades— but it can also help hone soft skills like communication, interpersonal relationship-building, creativity and persuasion. Strong readers don’t just make good editors and researchers; they make good managers, creators, idea generators, and team workers, too.

…But what if my child doesn’t want to read over summer?

We get it: there’s some heavy competition from lie-ins, sports, hanging out with friends, social media and video gaming. You can help incentivise reading by adding rewards like days out (or tasty snacks) into the mix, but it’s also important to ensure that ‘not wanting to read today’ doesn’t go deeper.

1 in every 5 learners in your child’s class is going to have a reading difference like dyslexia, and thanks to the pandemic, there are more kids than ever who have fallen behind in reading. If reading aversion seems to go beyond the normal summer-holiday slump, it’s always worth having a quick conversation about why. It might be that they need some extra support, whether that’s diagnosing a neurodiversity, or just the addition of some text-to-speech reading support to give their confidence a boost.

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?? Need a hand getting your young readers back into books for summer?? Why not take part in Scanning Pens' Summer Reading Challenge : just follow the map and colour your adventure for the chance to win big! ?

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