Avoiding a Summer Slump

How to help your student maintain academic progress over the summer

In the summers, students might “lose” some of the learning they accumulated over the school year.¹ This is called “Summer Learning Loss” or the “Summer Slump.” Students with ADHD are more likely than other students to suffer from a “dip” in their academic performance when they return to school in autumn. Here are some basic tips for helping your student over summer break.

Summer Work

Now is the time to reach out to your child’s teacher about summer work: what will they have to do? how much time will it take?

Start talking with your student now. Come up with a plan for when that work will get done. Factor in weeks they may be away at camp or vacation. Chunk the work.

If there are eight weeks of summer break and eight pages of math work, do one per week. But be more specific than that: do one every Monday at 9 am.

Your student’s teacher will probably assign some summer reading. This is especially important to help your student chunk. How many chapters should they get done each week? How will they go about doing that?

Reading

In addition to required summer reading, your student should be spending at least 5 minutes per grade level independently reading over the summer. This helps build attention spans and maintains reading abilities. Ask your child about what they’re reading. What do they think will happen next? How do they feel about the characters’ choices?

Medications

For many ADHDers, summer is a great time to take a break from ADHD meds and their side effects. It’s also a great time to get in to your prescriber and evaluate whether or not your student needs a different dose. In my experience, many students remain on the same dosage from third grade until eighth grade, while their bodies have doubled in size. Revisiting prescriptions in the summer can prevent this from happening.

Routines

Keep some routines over the summer. This will be different for everyone, but should include: routinized bedtime (off screens, shower, brush teeth, set out clothes for tomorrow, etc), wake up times, and regular, predictable chores (every Wednesday, do your laundry).

While not all of these habits have to do directly with school performance, they all are intrinsic to success at school. Students must develop skills that allow them to be lifelong learners, organized, and disciplined in order to achieve their goals.

1. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2024/summer-learning-loss-what-we-know-what-were-learning/