According to Cooper et al. (1996), students can lose several weeks of math learning over the summer, but the effect is different for every child. How much ground your child loses over the summer largely depends on how secure their math foundation was when the school year ended.
There are a few ways to gauge this. At Mathnasium, for instance, when students join us for a summer math program, we begin with a diagnostic assessment to understand where they are in their math journey and how much support they may need before the next grade.
You can use a similar lens at home. We’ll share a list of signals that will help you spot that your child needs summer math support. For your convenience, we’ll group the signals into three categories: academic, behavioral, and timing.
Perhaps the most intuitive starting point for most parents is a report card, which is useful, but it may not give you complete insight into your child's current skill level.
Your student can seem to be doing well in math class even with significant gaps in understanding, especially when homework completion, participation, or effort count toward the final grade.
Before you look at the signs we’ll review today, we recommend starting with your child's report card comments. If your teacher named a specific concept, such as fraction operations, multiplication fluency, or place value, they have already done part of the diagnostic work for you.
That feedback gives you the clearest starting point. The signs can help when the problem is less obvious.
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Some grade dips are normal, especially early in the year when new material is being introduced. What deserves attention is a decline that continues through the second half of the year across tests, quizzes, and classwork. This pattern may point to an unresolved gap.
Math builds on itself, so a gap that opens in February does not stay the same size. Each new topic that depends on that concept can make the gap harder to close. If your child's grade keeps sliding through June, they may have moved on to new material before the earlier concepts had a chance to click.
When the gap isn't addressed over the summer, your child starts in September behind material, which their next teacher will assume they know.
In our experience, students showing this pattern usually know something is wrong but can't name what it is. They describe feeling lost partway through a unit or suddenly not following when the class moves to a new topic.
You can use that as a starting point.
Ask where the lesson began to feel unclear: a new procedure, a word problem, a fraction step, or a change in topic. The answer can help you see whether the issue is recent confusion or a deeper gap that needs attention before summer.
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Your student may do well in some units and get stuck in others. This means that they may have a foundational gap that only shows up when a topic depends on it. For example, your child’s difficulty with ratios in sixth grade may come from fraction concepts that were never fully secure the year before.
This type of gap can be harder to catch because it doesn't show up consistently. The most reliable ways to identify it include state tests, such as our home state’s Arizona Academic Standards Assessment (AASA), and diagnostic assessments like the one we conduct at Mathnasium.
Unlike a final grade, which averages performance across the whole year, our diagnostic assessment looks at individual concepts and can show which specific skill is missing, even when the overall picture looks acceptable.
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State assessments like the Arizona Academic Standards Assessment (AASA) measure whether your child has met grade-level standards. Use a below-proficiency result as a reason to look more closely, even when the report card grades look acceptable.
For example, the AASA reports results in four performance levels: Minimally Proficient, Partially Proficient, Proficient, and Highly Proficient.
A Minimally or Partially Proficient result alongside acceptable report card grades is a signal that your student understands enough to get by in class but has conceptual gaps.
A Proficient or Highly Proficient result generally means your child is meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations. But in a year before a major transition, such as moving into sixth grade, these results may still deserve a closer look if the next grade introduces significantly more abstract material.
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Your child may follow procedures accurately but still get lost when they need to explain the reasoning behind fractions, algebra, or proportional thinking. This is one of the most common patterns we see in students, coming to us with decent grades but real gaps.
The final answer may be right, while the explanation behind it is still unclear. Practice sets can look fine when the method is obvious, while word problems, multi-step questions, or “show your work” problems reveal the gap.
Your student in this situation doesn't need more practice on the same steps. They need instruction that goes back to the concept and builds it properly. Summer is a practical window for that work because there's no new classroom material arriving on top of it.
☀️ Discover Summer Math Programs at Mathnasium of Paradise Valley
Math is also one of the subjects where your student's self-perception tends to form early and stick, so behavior around math can tell you something grades may miss.
According to research by Nuutila et al. (2018), the early expectations students face and their experiences with math can become steady enough to influence how motivated they feel and how they perform later on.
Your child may start to believe they “can’t do math” and disengage before their grades show a problem. Addressing that pattern, alongside any skill gaps, is part of what a good summer math program does.
General homework resistance is common. If you notice persistent avoidance or frustration around math that doesn't happen with other subjects, the cause might no longer be purely academic.
Consistent avoidance around math can point to several things:
a knowledge gap that makes the work feel out of reach,
math anxiety that makes it feel threatening,
In some cases, a learning difference, such as dyscalculia or ADHD, affects how your child processes math.
Summer is an opportunity to find out which of these reasons is behind the pattern, because the right kind of support depends on understanding the cause.
Mathnasium's summer program is structured around exactly this kind of work. Students begin with a diagnostic assessment that identifies the specific gap or frustration trigger, then follow a personalized learning plan in a fun and caring group environment.
The combination of targeted instruction and consistent encouragement gives students the skills and the confidence to show up to the next school year differently.
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Your child may say, “This is hard” when they feel temporarily frustrated. Pay closer attention when they start repeating phrases like “I’m just bad at math” or “I don’t have a math brain.” That belief can make them less willing to try, and a full summer away from math can make it harder to change.
After hitting the same wall again and again, your student may stop thinking, “This problem is hard,” and start thinking, “I’m not a math person.”
Research on math mindset and identity shows that when students see math ability as fixed, they may be less likely to respond to challenges with effort, help-seeking, or strategy changes. Over time, that belief can become its own obstacle, separate from the underlying skill gap.
Summer can be a good time to rebuild that confidence. With steady support in a low-pressure environment free of expectations and grades, your child can spend several weeks working through problems that once felt hard.
As those problems start to feel manageable, their view of math and their own ability can begin to change, too. Besides building confidence, we’ve seen many students begin to enjoy math.
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Your student may keep trying and still get stuck on the same kinds of problems. When effort is consistent, but results aren't improving, the problem is rarely effort.
There is usually a concept one or two steps back that hasn't fully landed, and more practice on top of it just rehearses the same misunderstanding.
This pattern is also discouraging in a particular way. Your child may work hard, see little progress, and start to believe that effort does not change the outcome. That belief can be harder to address than a clear skill gap.
Summer gives students time to address specific math gaps without new classroom material piling on each week. There is more room to return to the concept that is not clicking, work through it carefully, and rebuild from there. Once the right gap is identified, progress can become much easier to see.
Research by Ashcraft and Krause shows that math anxiety can take up working memory, which your child needs for multi-step math problems.
At that moment, they are not simply nervous. They may find it harder to keep track of the steps, quantities, and relationships the problem requires. This means math anxiety can make a capable student perform below their actual level.
Math anxiety and skill gaps often show up together. In fact, this is quite a common scenario: a student finds math hard, loses confidence, and then pulls away from the practice that could help.
Occasional nerves before a math test are normal. But watch for anxiety that becomes a pattern, such as trouble sleeping the night before, physical stress, or distress that seems larger than the situation.
Addressing only one side of that pattern rarely resolves the other. Mathnasium’s summer support that combines targeted concept work with a fun and caring group environment can interrupt that cycle, giving your child both the skills and the positive experience needed to approach math differently in the fall.
Your child may not show clear signs yet, but the demands of the next grade can still make summer support a smart step. We recommend summer support if your child is heading into one of these transition years.
At this level, students will move from more concrete elementary math into ratios, expressions, equations, and proportional thinking. These topics depend heavily on fraction understanding.
Siegler et al.’s research links good fraction skills at the end of elementary school with later algebra success. Your child may run into difficulty early in sixth grade when fraction fluency or proportional thinking is not secure.
✍️ You can also take Mathnasium’s 5th grade check-up, to see how solid the foundation is for 6th-grade math.
As your student moves into seventh grade, they begin using ratios, expressions, equations, and negative numbers in pre-algebra. A gap in one of those areas can make the faster pace harder to manage.
You can use summer to focus on one or two specific skills before school starts. That targeted review can help your child feel more prepared during the first weeks of seventh grade.
These signs are not meant to create alarm. They give you a clearer way to see where your child may need support before the same gap appears in more advanced work.
✍️ Mathnasium’s 6th-grade check-up can help you see whether your child is ready for 7th-grade math.
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Open year-round, Mathnasium is a math-only learning center for students of all skill levels.
Mathnasium is a math-only learning center for students of all skill levels. We work with students year-round and offer personalized summer math programs built around each student’s needs.
Every student's journey begins with a diagnostic assessment that identifies what they truly understand and where the gaps are.
Our specially trained tutors work with students through the Mathnasium Method™, our proprietary teaching approach, in a caring and fun group environment. We focus on building a full understanding of any math topic, so the progress students make over the summer carries into the fall.
Sessions target the right concepts from the start. Rather than working through generic review material, your child follows a personalized learning plan built around what they specifically need before the next school year begins.
Our results reflect what targeted, well-matched support produces:
94% of parents report an improvement in their child’s math skills and understanding
93% of parents report their child’s improved attitude toward math after attending Mathnasium
90% of students saw an improvement in their school grades
Mathnasium of Paradise Valley can help students in Paradise Valley, AZ, and the surrounding communities of Scottsdale, Phoenix, and the broader North Phoenix area. We welcome students across the full K–12 range.
If your child is showing any of the signals described, a free diagnostic assessment is the right place to start. It gives you a specific, actionable picture of where summer support will make the most difference.
📅 Schedule a Free Assessment at Mathnasium of Paradise Valley
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Mathnasium of Paradise Valley is a math-only learning center for K-12 students in Phoenix, AZ. Trusted by over a million parents, Mathnasium uses personalized learning plans and the proprietary Mathnasium Method™ to help students catch up, keep up, and get ahead on their math journey.
Our specially trained tutors deliver face-to-face instruction in a supportive and fun small-group environment, working with students both in center and online to develop a deep understanding of math, build confidence, and improve academic performance.
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