As summer approaches, many families begin to wind down from the academic year, looking forward to a break from routines, early mornings, and school responsibilities. While rest and unstructured time are important for children, pausing language and literacy therapy over the summer can have serious consequences, especially for students with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Autism, Dyslexia, and other learning needs.
Let’s talk about a well-documented phenomenon: summer learning loss. Research shows that even typically developing students can lose one to two months of academic skills over the summer (Munro, 2022). Now imagine how much harder this hit is for a child who already struggles to keep up during the school year (Kim & Quinn, 2013).
For Students with DLD and Language-Based Learning Challenges, Summer Is Not a Pause—It’s an Opportunity
Children with language and literacy difficulties don’t just need to maintain—they need to build, practice, and reinforce key skills consistently to make meaningful gains. When therapy is paused for several months, those hard-won improvements can unravel. The result? Your child may return in the fall not only behind where they left off, but with increased frustration, reduced stamina, and decreased motivation to reengage (Kromydas et al, 2022).
Worse yet, this “re-entry” can feel like starting from scratch. Children who have not engaged in structured language, reading, or writing tasks over the summer often return with greater difficulty completing tasks. These challenges can lead to increased frustration and avoidance, sometimes presenting as behavioral resistance when therapy is resumed in the fall. It’s not that they’re lazy or unwilling. The work simply feels harder now. They might withdraw, act out, or avoid tasks that they previously tackled with more ease.
The Misconception of “Taking a Break”
Parents sometimes believe that taking a summer break from therapy gives their child time to rest. But for kids with language and literacy delays, unstructured “downtime” can lead to skill regression that is costlier to repair than it would have been to prevent.
Instead of viewing summer as a break from therapy, think of it as a strategic time to double down on it. Without the pressures of homework, tests, or packed school schedules, summer therapy sessions can be:
- Longer and more focused
- Scheduled more frequently, leading to accelerated gains
- Customized to strengthen foundational skills in a fun and engaging way
- Designed to promote generalization of language strategies to real-life experiences
What Consistent Summer Therapy Can Do:
- Reinforce and stabilize skills taught during the school year
- Strengthen oral language in conversational and structured contexts
- Improve decoding, reading fluency, comprehension, spelling, and writing organization
- Support emotional regulation and pragmatic strategies in social situations
- Prevent skill loss, making the transition into the new school year smoother and more successful
Final Thoughts
If your child has been working hard all year, don’t let summer become a setback. Therapy isn’t just about support—it’s about momentum. And momentum is easier to maintain than to rebuild (Gershenson & Hayes, 2017).
Skipping or reducing sessions may seem harmless now, but by fall, many families find themselves scrambling to recoup lost progress. Instead, use summer as a springboard for growth. If possible, consider increasing session frequency—doubling up while schedules are more flexible can make a real difference.
Your child deserves to begin the next school year with greater confidence, stronger skills, and the tools to succeed. Let’s not just aim for catching up—let’s set them up to grow, excel, and thrive.
References:
- Gershenson, S., & Hayes, M. S. (2017). The summer learning of exceptional students. American Journal of Education, 123(3), 447–473.
- Kim, J. S., & Quinn, D. M. (2013). The effects of summer reading on low-income children’s literacy achievement from kindergarten to grade 8: A meta-analysis of classroom and home interventions. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 386–431
- Kromydas, T., Campbell, M., Chambers, S., Hilton Boon, M., Pearce, A., Wells, V., & Craig, P. (2022). The effect of school summer holidays on inequalities in children and young people’s mental health and cognitive ability in the UK using data from the Millennium Cohort Study. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 154.
- Munro, C. (2022). Learning loss: A summer problem. BU Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, 14(2), 29–33.