Preventing the Summer Slide: SEL Edition

By Megan Parker Peters, Ph.D., Social & Emotional Development Network

School’s out for summer! Whether this phrase elicits joy, sorrow, or another emotion in your gifted child, the pause of regular programming, an expected schedule, and collaboration with peers can be disruptive to a gifted student’s growth, including their social and emotional development. School provides regular opportunities for academic and social practice, which are not automatically consistent when school is not in session. However, when school is out for summer, it does not have to mean that gifted students are destined for stagnation and the proverbial summer slide (Alexander et al., 2016). There are valuable opportunities that become more accessible to gifted students when they are no longer limited by the confines of regular scheduling.

1. Camps & Programming for Gifted Students: There are many opportunities for gifted students to participate in day and residential programs or camps that are designed for high-ability students. Yes, these are great opportunities for students to grow their abilities in an appropriately-challenging learning environment. However, maybe even more importantly, these programs provide the rare opportunities for gifted students to learn, interact, and relate with other gifted students. In most cases, this is not the norm. Rather than being the one or one of a few high-ability students in a class, they become white noise among the group of gifted learners. This is a great opportunity for gifted learners to ask the deep questions, use the vocabulary of a scholar, and fully un-mask their gifted identities in an environment of peers who are doing the same. Summer programs are ripe opportunities for making friends with similar interests and abilities (Cross, 2016), which is often not feasible in a regular school setting where gifted students are not often grouped together.
2. Summer Reading & SEL: Summer Reading Programs have become a regular part of many family households. Local libraries often offer fun incentives for maintaining reading logs throughout the summer months. These are fantastic opportunities for students and families to visit local libraries and maintain or advance reading levels over the summer. In addition, there are potential SEL benefits. After gifted students read a book, encourage them to talk or write about the emotional expression or tone of the text. Ask, “What emotions did the main character experience in the book? How do you know?” “What emotions was the author attempting to convey in their writing?” “Think about the books you have read this summer. Which characters demonstrated bravery? Joy? Frustration? Enthusiasm? How do you know? Have you ever experienced X emotion? What was that like?” Allow reading to become an opportunity to build emotional vocabularies and experience light bibliotherapy (Hebert, 2021).
3. Exposure & Expertise: While there are many benefits to the regular academic school year programming, the hours and requirements often limit the amount of extracurricular activities that can be attempted. A student may be interested in trying violin, swimming, and dance. However, there are not enough days and hours to fit all of the activities into a weekly schedule. Summer provides more flexibility in scheduling for many students and families. Camps and extended programs allow students to taste many activities within a few short summer months. A more flexible schedule allows gifted students to be exposed to activities of choice that may not be as accessible during the academic year. The opportunities to try new activities may fuel students to want to continue one or more of the summer activities during the regular school year; trying activities in the summer may also allow gifted students to prioritize which activities are most desired for further expertise development (Subotnik et al., 2011). In addition, gifted students are meeting other peers with similar interests when they participate in such summer programs; this provides gifted students with greater potential for forming and sustaining friendships with peers who share similar interests, which may not be as feasible during the academic year.

School is out for summer, and the less structured time can be viewed as an opportunity for gifted students to grow and thrive in ways that are not as possible during the regular academic year. Take advantage of the moments of increased freedom that will allow  your gifted students to thrive rather than slide!

References

Alexander, K., Pitcock, S., & Boulay, M. (Eds.). (2016). The Summer Slide: What We Know and Can Do About Summer Learning Loss. Teachers College Press.

Cross, J. R. (2016). Gifted children and peer relationships. In M. Neihart, S. I. Pfeiffer, & T. L. Cross (Eds.), The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children: What Do We Know? (2nd ed., pp. 41–52). Prufrock Press.

Hébert, T. P. (2021). Understanding the social and emotional lives of gifted students (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003239338

Subotnik, R. F., Olszewski-Kubilius, P., & Worrell, F. C. (2011). Rethinking giftedness and gifted education: A proposed direction forward based on psychological science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 12(1), 3–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100611418056