How to Lose Learning Loss

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - April 19th, 2022

By Heather Wood

Tutor, Teacher and Writer for Testing Mom

I’m tired of talking about it. I’m sure you are too. But nevertheless, problems resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic reverberate still, two full years later. And that goes double for school children!

It was March 2020 when the world changed. And while some found unique new ways to pass the time by baking sourdough bread or adopting a new pet to cuddle, school children in America were experiencing something very different.

Learning Loss.

How can you “lose” learning, you may ask? First of all, it’s not actually a loss of knowledge that children already possess. What learning loss means is that there is a lack of new learning that builds on the foundation of knowledge and skills that children have previously established.

Here is what learning loss looks like for school children in preschool through early elementary grades, who were abruptly sent home to learn basic reading skills in a new and unfamiliar environment: Google Classroom. While teachers were struggling to adapt their hands-on, in-person lessons on phonics—associating letters with sounds and stringing them together to read words—children were thrust into this new, abstract learning method through their Chromebooks, tablets, and in some cases, their parents’ cell phones. Many children didn’t adapt well to that change, and thus missed critical instruction on the basics of how to read.

In fact, an article in The New York Times recently reported some disturbing results of an assessment administered at the start of this school year at Capital Preparatory Harbor Lower School in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The article stated that the school’s incoming first graders tested at or below Kindergarten levels in reading skills.*  Just think about the repercussions of that type of learning loss. How will these children learn in other subjects if they can’t read? A child who can’t read words can’t read word problems in math or be able read for a lesson in his science textbook.

As you can see, learning loss in young children is a BIG issue, because it affects their education, career, and even everyday life in drastically negative ways.

But what can you do as a parent?

There are lots of things parents can do to combat learning loss for their children, and many of them you can find right here at TestingMom.com!

• Become a Member of TestingMom.com! Joining Testing Mom will give your child access to over 30 premium interactive websites in our Skill Building Academy, like Study Island, Spelling Ninja, and BrainPop, fun learning sites that teach your child the “3 R’s” as well as more advanced concepts and skills. It is affordable to join TestingMom.com – in fact, one year’s membership in Testing Mom costs less than a year of most of the 30+ premium learning websites available to you in our Skill Building Academy.  Because we are an accredited after-school program, we can include access to these sites as part of your membership. When you join, you can also access hundreds of practice tests for all the most commonly administered standardized tests across the country, including state tests and gifted program assessments. Just go to Testingmom.com to join today!
• Engage a One-to-One Tutor for Your Pre-School through Lower Elementary-aged Child. An experienced tutor like ours here at TestingMom.com can meet with your child regularly to work on phonics or math skills – whatever they need. Our reading or math specialists and other tutors will engage your child in fun, personalized direct instruction that will help them catch up and even exceed grade level skills in math, ELA, reading, science and more. Contact Testing Mom today! Call (813) 544-3833 or Email tutoring@testingmom.com to learn about our affordable tutoring packages for young students.
• Engage a One-to-One Tutor for Your Upper Elementary through High School-aged Child. An experienced tutor like ours at TestingMom.com can meet with your child regularly to work on vocabulary acquisition; reading comprehension; language and writing; mathematics, PSAT or SAT prep, and so much more! Our experienced and knowledgeable tutors will engage your child in individualized lessons and activities that will help them overcome learning loss and even exceed grade level skills. Contact Testing Mom today! Call (813) 544-3833 or Email tutoring@testingmom.com.
• Take a Live Online Course from Testing Mom! We offer many engaging courses taught by qualified and knowledgeable instructors for children of all ages in topics ranging from basic reading, writing and language classes to math and more advanced topics like coding and even how to play chess! Contact Testing Mom today! Call (813) 544-3833 or Email tutoring@testingmom.com to learn about our affordable tutoring packages for young students.

Although learning loss is a scary concept, being proactive by supporting your child with some top-rate tutoring, learning websites and online courses will help your child overcome learning obstacles. We can all persevere!

*Goldstein, Dana. “It’s ‘Alarming’: Children Are Severely Behind in Reading.” The New York Times. March 8, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/us/pandemic-schools-reading-crisis.html

Heather Wood is a certified teacher and tutor with more than 10 years of experience and a tutor, teacher, and writer for TestingMom.com. She is a mother to her 11-year-old daughter and a homeschool mother to her 8-year-old son with special needs.