Your Dyslexic Kid on Summer Break! 5 Tips To Make The Most Of It

Are you worried about your dyslexic kid losing academic skills over the summer? We have some creative tips to help you out.

Hey everyone, we're Nick and Sonja, and this is Dyslexia Journey, where we help you support the dyslexic kid in your life. And today we want to talk about, you know, how kids can lose some of their academic skills over the summer, which, you know, I think we've all heard about in general, but we might be very concerned about with our dyslexic kids and dyslexic students. And, you know, on the other hand, we, you know, they need a break, just like anyone else, and we don't necessarily want to spend all summer doing academic things.

So we want to share with you some ideas for how we can still be really intentional about this, and still keep summer really fun and interesting. Okay, so jumping right in, our first tip is actually to let your dyslexic kid relax and have a break and enjoy the summer. I think that the number one most important thing is that they can be rejuvenated and refreshed and able to approach school again in the fall with a fresh, open, and engaged attitude.

Yeah, and so I would say if there is a more academic kind of thing that they're doing over the summer in order to help them, perhaps, you know, with the dyslexia, just really making sure there's still a lot of time that is more unstructured for them. Yeah, and we've discussed on other episodes how dyslexic kids, especially, they need perhaps more downtime than other kids, because it requires so much intense focus and concentration for them to do the reading and writing tasks that non-dyslexic people kind of take for granted.

So it's even more important that they get these breaks and this downtime in a very unstructured way, like Sonja was saying. Right, and of course that's just helpful for socio-emotional reasons, but it's also, you know, even from the academic perspective, like you really don't want them burnt out as they're starting the new school year. So tip number two is to see if your local library has a summer reading program. So this is probably the most, feels most directly related to actually, you know, encouraging them to read.

But we've found that, you know, maybe not every kid will take to it, but for our daughter, she really did. And a lot of it was the way it was structured. It was very, you know, it has fun rewards, of course. You know, there's raffles at the end and you get little prizes along the way, so that's motivating. But it also, at least at our library, was structured such that it was more about like reading 10 minutes a day.

So it was very much structured in a nice way where it wasn't necessarily about completing a book. And so that can be especially helpful, I think, for a dyslexic kid to feel like it's not taking all day, but it's just, you know, regularly doing it was the focus. Yeah, and I think for our daughter, I think it provided some structure and just sort of a reminder to sit down and read for 10 or 15 minutes every day, which actually for several summers, that really has motivated her to get through some books on her own.

Yeah, and then sometimes there's even a writing challenge or like a writing contest. And, you know, again, it'll be probably vary depending on what your kid likes, but if they're at all interested in story or that kind of thing, it can be really a nice motivation to take a stab at it. And, you know, if they need help writing it, one way to do that, that our daughter's done before, I think she didn't owe us for these challenges, but ever in the past, you know, she can dictate it to you.

She could dictate it to us. Yeah, that's also motivating in a way that feels, I think, one aspect of this is that it felt different enough from school that it didn't sort of trigger those resistances to school in the way that some other more sort of explicitly academic-focused summer camps or activities might be. Right. Okay, so our third tip is to continue reading to your dyslexic child. This is something that hopefully does not feel stressful or like school to your child.

It's hopefully something you've been doing with your dyslexic child, but if not, it's never too late to start. We wholeheartedly believe that reading to your child is important, whether they're dyslexic or not, but it's especially important for your dyslexic child so that, as we've discussed in previous episodes, so that they get many of the benefits that they aren't getting because they're not reading as much to themselves. So, for example, they can get the same sense of story, they can understand plot and characters and all sort of those aspects, as well as some more, I guess, explicitly focused on more reading skills.

They can actually gain a lot of vocabulary from hearing it orally, which often people pick up from reading to themselves. Right, and even sometimes just, you know, sentence structure might be a little more familiar if there's unusual sentence structures used. All of that just provides that familiarity with, you know, with those kinds of things that does help with other reading. And also, I want to emphasize that you can read to your child at any age, so this can be from, you know, preschool, four-year-old, five-year-old, all the way up through the teenage years.

It can still be beneficial. And one other quick benefit to mention is that there's more of a general exposure to different facts and concepts and ideas that is found in reading that those who read get the benefit of. And so they can get that just from you reading to them, too. And, you know, since we're talking about it being summer, you could even try to make it, like, a little different in the summer.

You could read in a hammock or, you know, do something to make it, like, sort of summery and fun, too. All right, so our fourth tip is about summer camps. And the tip here is kind of similar to our tip number one, is that they need kind of time that's not explicitly academic-focused. So our tip around summer camps is to follow their interests. Like, we really strongly recommend against forcing them into kind of remedial work, summer school, that kind of stuff.

Really treat the summer break as a summer break and let them do camps that they're really interested in. So whether that's a sports camp or a nature camp or a pottery camp or a humane society camp, something like that. Really let them follow their interests because that's going to both make them more sort of rejuvenated and ready to approach school again with a fresh start in the fall. And also probably make them more likely to be willing to do whatever reading and writing is involved in that particular camp, even if it's not explicitly academic-focused.

Or perhaps reading instructions on pet care at the Humane Society or instructions on dog walking or whatever it is. Yeah, and so, again, just if they're following their interests, that embedded reading is going to feel very natural and exciting to them. And they'll just probably do it naturally as they're on the camp. So we do have a sort of a side tip for camps, though, which is to be really mindful about letting the camp know in advance that your kid is dyslexic.

Because sometimes we don't think of those embedded reading things that might happen at a non-academic camp. And so it can be really important to let them know, just like school and the teachers know, because it might prevent instances of embarrassment if they're supposed to be the one who reads something out loud or getting in trouble. Because sometimes, you know, it's interpreted as not paying attention or something like that. And so it's really important to let them know ahead of time.

And maybe especially important because often camp counselors might be even less aware because they might be teenagers, for example. So it might just not occur to them. Yeah, or even if they're not teenagers, they're not necessarily as well trained as sort of public school teachers, public or private school teachers are. Right. Alright, our fifth and final tip for today is to look for reading opportunities in the fun summer activities that you are doing anyways.

So, you know, you can obviously think of a number of summer activities that your family does where you can look for direct reading opportunities. But just to give a couple examples of some things that we do, one is going to the farmer's market. So if you're going to the farmer's market, you could employ your child to help you find your list of things that you're looking for. So you can give them a list, you know, corn and kale or whatever, and they can help find which booths are selling that produce.

They can read the signs to figure out what the cost is for different items at those booths, etc. Yeah, and I think, again, sort of this can just be natural, you know, it's not like you have to make it explicitly a reading activity. I think it's just sort of that you notice it and, you know, invite them into the process with you. Yeah. Other examples quickly, going swimming at the swimming pool or at the beach, they could read, you know, read the safety signs, read the instructions, the no diving, all that kind of thing.

Yeah, and a really fun one is if you, you know, if you're the kind of family who goes to the ice cream shop regularly in the summer, that can be really fun. Because who doesn't want to read the different flavors, right? And another fun place that sometimes people go in the summers is to an amusement park or a water park. And there, you know, you can be reading about what height, you know, that someone can be to ride a ride.

You can be looking at the map where you see all the different, you know, places where there's the different fun rides. And then even the ride names, it's kind of like a good example of nonsense words and trying to read those. Yeah. And so I think that the general point here is it doesn't have to be forced. It doesn't have to be extensive. But just use whatever opportunity presents itself in whatever fun activity you're already doing just to give your child that sort of extra little practice.

So hopefully those were some helpful tips for you. We'd love to hear any more tips you have in the comments. Enjoy your summer, everyone.