Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Overwhelmed with where to start

NAEYC says redshirting is overall a bad idea for kids (http://journal.naeyc.org/btj/200309/DelayingKEntry.pdf ).

And this study shows no social differences by the end of first grade. http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/ej-cite/ej516737.html

Everything depends on your local circumstances; look closely before you decide.

DeeDee

I oppose redshirting generally and have read a number of studies that support my feeling. However, there is also some troubling evidence that kids who are young for grade get misdiagnosed with ADHD at alarming rates. I could dig up the study but it's likely findable. Anyway, that might be a worry for me if I had a boy on the borderline AND thought he might be at risk for being incorrectly flagged for ADHD.

Ultra, here's the link to that finding (reported in USA Today a while back) : http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-08-17-1Aadhd17_ST_N.htm .

Teachers are not allowed to diagnose anything, nor are they to recommend meds. They're not qualified to do it, and it's inappropriate. IMO parents of young-for-grade children need to be attentive to these issues, but also ready to stand up (nicely) to teachers who cross that line. I don't think this is a "risk" in that the decision to diagnose and/or medicate ADHD is that of parents and health care providers, NOT schools.

DeeDee

Is this the article you mean, Grinity?

Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril
By SAM WANG and SANDRA AAMODT
New York Times
September 24, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/dont-delay-your-kindergartners-start.html

The authors are neurologists and recently published, Welcome to your Child's Brain. There's a bit of debate about this article on this forum:

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....rting_and_grade_skipping.html#Post112399

Thanks Mcswones!

My dd6 has an august birthday. He is in first grade. Our cutoff of January so I was amazed that she has been the youngest in her class for two years. 8 out of 14 children on her class this year have been red shirted. Lucky die her cause she enjoys the older kids but I just don't like when people don't play by the rules so that their children can appear brighter. Ugh! I can't ask to skip my April baby, but u don't even need a reason to hold back your June baby if you want him to be bigger. I wouldn't have such a problem with it if is was fair. Parent placement for all. Not just people with enough money to send their children to preschool an extra year. Not just for people who want to hold back but for those who want to enter early as well. So sorry about the rant. I have observed the classy dd is in and helped with field trips. There ate so many older kids that they all seem to be doing just fine and all have friends. The only time I have seen it not work is when there was a very gifted boy in dd then 5's class. He was 6 in kindergarten and quickly became my dd's best friend. The teacher said my dd was the only one who could understand his advanced language. I asked that they be separated because he wasn't letting her make other friends. They were separated and are in different classes. Dd claims that this year he often doesn't come out to recess and chooses to stay in and read. It is obvious that this boy is lonely and would no better in the next grade up. His parents held him because his motor skill (just a little clumsy) not delayed and because he did not like to participate in preschool cirlclr time.

It is easier to try kindergarten and decide to repete than to convince thebachool that red shirting was a mistake and they now need to skip.

Sorry. Typing with my thumbs.

Reading this thread with interest, but am stumped by the term "red shirting."

Redshirting came from college sports. Typically a student can only participate in a sport for 4 years. However, they can be sat out a year to bulk up, recover from injury, whatever, and then play the next 4 years - making them older/stronger/etc than most of the other seniors, and theoretically giving the team an advantage.

So in the educational setting it means to hold your child back a year? Am I understanding correctly that this is often done so the kids will be a better football player?

Boggling.

And thanks Amy!

Note that the term originated in the context of college sports, not elementary school. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_(college_sports) ]

There are lots of reasons parents might choose to send a kid with a close-to-the-cutoff birthday to school a year later than they were eligible, just as there are lots of reasons parents might want to send a kid with a close-to-the-cutoff birthday to school a year earlier than they were eligible. Sports specifically isn't a typical reason, but size in general, social maturity, and academic readiness are.