How to Brief Teachers on Your Child's Summer Progress

At most traditional schools, teachers are used to recognizing children who excel - so if your child has a learning disability and attends a traditional school, it may be difficult for the teachers to see and recognize the progress your child has made over the summer. But you can help them understand your child’s individual cognitive gains and prime them to recognize similar improvements in the future.

Start by setting a quantifiable baseline. Explain your child’s abilities before summer break in terms of measurable units. Use numbers whenever possible. You might explain in terms of things like the number of mistakes made or the time it took to solve certain types of problems. This will orient the teacher to your child’s starting point and help them recognize improvements.

Once you have established your baseline, compare and contrast your child’s current abilities in like terms. For example, if you established that your child started the summer making 10 math errors per day, then you could explain that your child now only makes 5 math errors per day. When you “compare apples to apples,” you help the teacher to understand positive progress even if it is incremental compared to other children.

It’s also true that some types of progress don’t necessarily manifest directly in academic performance, and it’s important to brief teachers on these achievements, too. For example, you might explain that your child started the summer withdrawn from other children and unable to comprehend social situations, but now feels comfortable playing with other kids one-on-one. This will help the teacher understand what types of classroom situations might challenge your child (both positively and negatively).

Teachers can often be at a disadvantage at the start of the school year, because they are just getting to know their students. You can help speed up that learning curve and help them get to know your child’s needs better and faster by explaining their academic and social progress over the summer - then the teacher can assign work that is the best possible fit for your child.