How to Maintain the Skills Learned in School Over the Summer

Summer fun

While having time off from school before the next year can help your children unwind, it is important for children to participate in activities that stimulate their minds. Many children lose about one month’s worth of reading and math skills over the summer.  

In order to make sure your children maintain what they learned in school over the summer, you can:

  • Limit screen time. Too much time in front of the screen means less time children are allowing their minds to be creative and use critical thinking. Set an appropriate time limit on screens each day so that they have more time to play outside and engage in problem solving tasks.
  • Have your children read for 15-20 minutes a day and complete 3-5 age-appropriate math problems each day.
  • Combine gross motor games with academic skills. Catching a ball back and forth while counting or answering trivia questions is a way for children to use gross motor movements along with critical thinking. This improves problem solving skills, attention, and motor coordination. 
  • Encourage your children to play outside every day. When children are outside running, climbing, and riding bikes, their brains are using different neurological pathways that help strengthen different movement patterns. Not only is movement important for your children’s regulation, it helps children who are still developing their speech coordinate movements required to form words and sounds.  
  • Create movement games indoors. On days where it’s too hot to go outside, create fun indoor games that involve movement and critical thinking such as Simon Says, Twister, scavenger hunts, and multi-step obstacle courses.

Since children don’t spend much time in the classroom during the summer, it is a perfect time for them to be outside and participate in games that involve problem solving. If children are able to maintain the academic skills they already know, they will be more confident learning new skills during the upcoming school year. 

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Celebrating Better Speech and Hearing Month

Each May, Better Speech and Hearing Month shines a spotlight on the importance of communication, connection, and early support for speech, language, and hearing development. Whether a child is learning new words, building confidence in conversation, or improving listening skills, families play a powerful role in helping communication grow every day. 

As summer begins, families can take advantage of school being out and outdoor adventures to encourage communication in natural ways. Here are two easy activities to try: 

1. Story Walk Adventures

Take a favorite book outdoors and combine reading and movement into a fun new activity. Read one page at a time while walking through the park, backyard, or neighborhood. Pause to ask questions like:

  • “What do you think will happen next?”
  • “Can you find something that looks like this picture?”
  • “How would this character feel?”

This builds vocabulary, listening, comprehension, and conversation skills while keeping kids active and engaged.

2. Sidewalk Chalk Word Games

Use sidewalk chalk to draw letters, simple words, or pictures on the driveway or sidewalk. Younger children can practice naming objects or sounds, while older kids can create rhyming words, categories, or silly sentences.

Movement-based learning helps keep children engaged while supporting speech, language, and early literacy development.

Better Speech and Hearing Month reminds us that communication happens everywhere- not just in therapy sessions or classrooms. Small moments spent talking, listening, reading, and playing together can make a big difference all summer long.

OTHER BLOGS:

The Impact of Speech Therapy on Development – Kids Place Therapy Services

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Support Your Kids Growth This Spring With Crossing Midline Activities

Ever wonder how you can support your child’s growth outside of what you already do? Something to help elevate their development is engaging them in activities that allow for both sides of their brain to communicate by crossing midline!

What is Crossing Midline?

Midline is an imaginary line that runs up and down through the center of our body, dividing it into right and left sides. Crossing midline means moving our eyes, hands or feet across that line. This skill allows for both sides of our brain to communicate effectively for everyday activities.

This spring we want your children to feel supported as they finish up the school year and a great way to do that is to incorporate activities that encourage them to cross midline! These activities can be completed inside or outside!

Home Activities to Encourage Crossing Midline Visually & Physically

InfinityDrawing Infinity Sign

  • Draw a large infinity sign with chalk on the driveway, sidewalk or a fence
  • Have your child trace it with one hand without moving their feet
  • Have them use a toy car to ‘drive’ on it the same way they would use their finger
  • Encourage them to follow their movement with their eyes
  • You can do this inside by drawing the symbol on a big piece of paper taped to the wall, whiteboard or on a chalkboard

Rainbow RowRainbow Row

  • Have your child sit criss cross applesauce on the driveway or on the sidewalk and have them show you how far they can reach to each side with their hands
  •  Use colorful chalk to draw dots in a vertical row for them to successfully reach
  • Each color on the left should match a color on the right
  • Have the child draw a line to connect the matching colors, visually tracking while keeping their head still
  • If inside, draw dots on the left and right margins of a paper using colored markers or stickers

Hand Twister

  • Using colorful chalk, on a fence, driveway or sidewalk, draw colored dots and call out positions that require crossing midline of arms or feet
    • Example: “Left hand, yellow!”
  • They should touch the yellow dot on their right side with their left hand.
  • Activity can also be done by drawing letters, words, numbers, shapes, on each side
  • To do this inside, complete the activity on a page by drawing colored dots

Pass a Ball to a Friend While Sitting Back-to-Back

  • Have two children (or you and your child) sit back to back and pass a ball to each other
  • Change directions in which you are passing and have the child use two hands when passing

Arm Scissors

  • Have your child hold their arms out to the sides in a “T” position
  • While keeping their arms straight demonstrate crossing your arms in front of your body then return your arms to the starting position for them to copy
  • Have your child complete and encourage them to alternate which arm crosses on top (right over left, then left over right).
  • Have them count aloud as they scissor their arms
  • Complete this as fast or as slow as desired

Cross Crawls

  • Bring your elbow to the opposite side knee
  • Repeat with the other side, complete 10x each side
  • Can be done while seated if necessary

Hand Clapping Games

  • Teach your child Miss Merry Mack! Or have them clap their hands together then reach their opposite arm across to high five yours as they spell their name, your name, spring words, sight words, or anything of interest to them
  • Completing while seated may allow you to see compensatory tendencies such as putting one hand down at their side or excessive rotation of their upper body

Additional Resources

https://www.theottoolbox.com/crossing-midline-march-gross-motor https://developlearngrow.com/midline-crossing-activities/

https://otperspective.com/40-crossing-midline-activities-you-can-do-at-home/

 

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Indoor Activities to Keep Your Child Occupied

Thanks to the chilly weather, so many of us haven’t been getting the movement that our bodies need. Staying inside the house for too long can cause many children to become agitated, have decreased concentration during school, and to sleep poorly. Screen time increases while time spent doing activities that facilitate learning decreases.   

It is important to make sure your children receive the movement they need. There are many indoor activities that encourage problem-solving, even when it’s cold outside.   

Here are some activities you can do at home with your children to stimulate their minds:  

  • Obstacle Courses. Have your children crawl over cushions, complete animal crawls, and jump from one end of the room to another.  
  • Simon Says. Incorporate motor movements such as jumping jacks, marching, rolling, and side stepping in a fun game. 
  • Red Light, Green Light. Have your children run and walk across the hallway of your house at different speeds while having to listen for a color to be called. 
  • Cook Together. Make a simple meal with your child, (i.e. a sandwich, pancakes, grilled cheese, or a fruit salad).  Encourage your children to find the ingredients of these meals in your kitchen and think about the steps involved in making these meals.  
  • Scavenger Hunt. Hide objects around your house and have your children look for them.  This activity encourages your children to problem solve, pay attention to obstacles in the way, and use coping strategies during challenging situations. 

For other activities that encourage important skills check out our other blog about learning through play.  

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The Transition from Winter Break Back to School

Back to School from Winter Break

Winter break is a blast for kids! After all the fun and festivities, school seems so boring in comparison. However, transitioning back to school after being home can be so difficult!

Here are a number of strategies occupational therapists might use to make this transition easier: 

  1. Start your child back on their school sleep schedule. Start waking and putting to bed your children at the times you would on a school night/morning up to a week in advance. 
  2. Practice morning routine. Start practicing the morning routine and then go out! Go to the library or the park!
  3. Help plan lunches. Have your child help you plan their lunches. Maybe make a special dessert with your child to put in their lunch.  
  4. Table time. Work with your child to do a fun seated activity. Maybe do a winter craft.
  5. Keep a routine. Plan out a schedule with your kids of different activities to do and places to go. 
  6. Decrease screen time. Start to decrease screen time back to your allotted amount during the school week. 

Fun Baking Ideas:

Fun Seated Activities: 

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