After a full year of schooling during COVID-19, more than 90% of parents report they are supplementing with learning at home and 68% are using early learning apps

May 10, 2021- As the first full school year during the COVID-19 pandemic comes to a close, playlearning™ app Lingokids released today its report, The State of Pandemic Learning: Sliding into Summer 2021, exploring perceptions among U.S. parents of the state of childhood learning. The report, which surveyed parents of children ages 2-8, presents new data revealing that the majority (86%) of parents believe their child has missed out on learning certain skills this school year. A similar amount (85%) reported that their child experienced distance or hybrid learning this year.

An overwhelming majority (91%) of parents report supplementing learning at home and 68% of parents said they rely often on early learning apps. The report found that parents have incorporated screen time and usage of apps into their daily home routines as a means to cope with the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic and offer an additional outlet for learning or creativity. The reports shows that parents are:

Bridging the distance-learning gap at home

• The top skills that parents believe their child has not learned this year or needs to be “caught up in” next year are social-emotional learning (49%), math (45%), reading (43%), writing (43%) and physical education (41%) 
• An overwhelming majority (91%) are supplementing learning at home and are doing so by reading to their children (68%), encouraging them to use early learning or educational apps (57%) and practicing with flash cards (48%)
• Sixty-eight percent of parents said they rely often on early learning apps to supplement at-home learning

Leaning on early learning apps

As a resource for educational and interactive content, Lingokids has seen a 128% user increase since the beginning of the pandemic, now with 25 million families on the app. The survey echoes that parents are finding early learning apps helpful for learning at home.

• Parents say early learning apps offer their child something good to do while they’re busy (65%), offer additional instruction to their child (54%) or an outlet for learning or creativity (45%) and are a good alternative to other screen time options (45%).
• When asked about how learning apps have helped their children during the pandemic, parents said they help their child to catch up on learning (53%), reinforce topics covered in school (51%), introduce new ideas or topics not covered in school (50%) or offer a new way to practice emerging skills (47%).
• The majority of parents (89%) say they would be more likely to use early learning apps in the home if they teach social-emotional learning, something that was very much missing in this year of isolation. 
• Ninety percent of parents would be more likely to use early learning apps in their home if they encouraged them and their child to play and learn together.

Anticipating a rough return to school in fall

Education experts and parents alike are sharing concerns about students experiencing what’s referred to as a “COVID slide,” an exacerbated version of a typical summertime loss or no gain of academic learning. 

• Eighty-four percent of parents are concerned about transitioning their child back into the classroom this fall.
• Eighty-seven percent of parents say they will continue to use early learning apps at home over the summer to help with the transition.

“Summertime is when you want to feel playful and carefree, yet this year more than ever, parents are rightfully concerned about their child walking into the classroom next fall and feeling ill-equipped,” said Suzanne Barchers, EdD, education advisory board chair at Lingokids. “However, there’s a lot that can be done over summer break to combat what we’re calling the ‘COVID slide,’ and the great thing is that most of it can be done at home with your child.” 

Barchers offers tips to parents of young children to use this summer in order to get ready for back to school after a year (or more!) of distance or hybrid schooling:

• Focus on social-emotional learning, which can be done in any environment, be it summer camp or a road trip. During summer break, children can learn about time management, self-reliance, family values, and how to process difficulties. Model behavior to them and leverage real-life situations to make them into learning opportunities. 
• Learn through play so the process is fun, not daunting. Summertime is when you want to feel playful and carefree. Practice alphabet, letter and phonics sounds by singing songs and make it a dance party. Identify shapes and colors on the road or at the bath. Count seashells. 
• Be a part of the adventure and practice “shared screen time” by doing fun activities online with your child. Engaging with online learning with your child makes for a great bonding activity and promotes cognition. Take time to critique the shared experiences. Extend the learning, for example, by comparing books to movies of the same name.
• Mix in some educational screen time. Every child learns at a different pace and introducing educational apps allows them to go at their own speed. Children can also choose their particular activity, which gives them the opportunity to make choices, think for themselves, and create a personalized learning path. Lingokids invites children to playlearn with interactive games and songs, while offering parents a resource that engages their children with highly appealing educational content. With more than 140 million views on Youtube, its “ABC Chant” was one of 2020’s biggest hits.

Lingokids currently serves a community of over 25 million families worldwide, with playlearning™ that enables children to build early reading and writing skills, all within a safe game-based learning experience. The content engages children with games and videos that expand vocabulary, support the learning of phonics and letters, introduce STEM concepts and other 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, empathy, and caring for the environment. The hub, www.lingokids.dev.boream.com, also offers, in addition to weekly plans, several tiers of programming that entail a parent community, blog posts, and videos. This additional content is available to provide access to any questions, doubts and advice from other parents, and experts in early learning. 

Lingokids provides resources for children, parents, and caregivers with relevant topics throughout these unprecedented times, such as its #PositiveParenting Series on @Lingokids on Instagram and Facebook.