Leave behind the morning routines, after school activities and the weekend games: Summer is here. It is time for a break from tears at school pick-ups and meltdowns during homework time, as well. Simply relax and enjoy the sun. But don’t just throw away the school books out the window just yet.

While summer break is an excellent time for all children to charge up their batteries, a long break from academics actually results in learning losses both in reading and math. This is especially true for children with learning differences. These losses accumulating over the years result in students with learning differences to fall behind even further than their peers. So this means that parents of children with learning differences might just need to sprinkle care-free summers with some educations activities.

Feel bumped? Let’s take this a step further. Summer can actually be a great time to polish up reading and math skills to narrow the gap that might already exist. These couple of months is an excellent opportunity for students with learning differences to catch up where they have fallen behind. Unlike during the school year, focusing on one subject at a time without the distraction of other classes could result in significant gains in a short period of time.

Leisure reading is an excellent way not only to practice reading skills and fluency but also to build reading confidence. Summer is the best time to introduce reluctant readers to new reading materials. Decodable chapter books at the right reading levels are great choices for teaching young readers the love of reading.

Summer, indeed, can also be a good time to tip the students’ toes into the curriculum of the upcoming academic year. Although not as much fun as reading fiction books, reading ahead in textbooks during summer also prepares them for the approaching academic year.