Answer:
While children and youth have a variety of experiences during the summertime, there is evidence that access to high-quality experiences may not be equitable across different groups of children and youth, and this may have disparate effects on their development. In this chapter, we review what is known about how summer affects the development of children and youth across the four domains in the committee's charge (see Box 3-1): (1) safety, risk-taking, and anti- and pro-social behavior, (2) physical and mental health and health-promoting behaviors, (3) social and emotional development, and (4) academic learning and opportunities for enrichment. We address them in this order to reflect the fundamental need for safety and health as a precursor for social and emotional development and academic learning. The chapter begins with a brief description of the developmental needs and stages of children and youth. Next, it examines what is known about how summer influences this development and the seasonal patterns observed within each domain. The extent to which summer programs and camps have been found to influence outcomes in each of the four domains, as well as the programmatic factors that enhance program effectiveness, is discussed in Chapter 4.
Explanation:
