Preventing Summer Reading Declines in Children Who Are Disadvantaged

During summer vacation, children who are disadvantaged often experience declines in reading achievement, while children from middle- and high-income backgrounds improve. In this study, an experimental group of first-grade children who were disadvantaged were enrolled in a summer reading camp that included 2 hr of systematic reading instruction blended into an 8-week summer day camp experience. Parents or legal guardians of children assigned to the comparison group received training to implement effective reading strategies with their children over the summer. Results showed noteworthy differences in reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, phonics skills, and oral reading for children who attended the reading camp program. The results provide initial evidence that teaching young children to read in a summer camp context can be a successful intervention to help obviate summer reading loss.