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    Joined: Mar 2014
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    I need some advice! I have a 17-year-old son that is gifted and I have an 8-year-old daughter that I think might be gifted too. The problem that I have is that she has a 7/27/05 birthday and the age cutoff is 8/1 for kindergarten in our school district. She is right at the cutoff; I almost wished I held her back a year because of her age. Not because she was academically behind. It is just that school can be so competitive for kids. Most of the classmates are 9 months older than my daughter. There is not a day that goes by that another classmate informs her that she is beneath someone�s math or reading level. I try to explain to her that most of the kids are older (almost a year) and it just doesn't matter how well they do. She shouldn't compare herself to them. That rationale just doesn't seem to help.

    I would love to have her tested based on her chronological age versus by grade to "level" the playing field. I want to get her tested through the school do you think I have a reasonable request? The only thing I can go off on is her reading level which is at a 6.2 level (my gifted son at 2.9 had a 6.4). We had two terrible years of teachers, one was on Facebook most of the day and the other was right out of school. It is well documented with the school about the two teachers, I feel like we were cheated 2 years of schooling. This year has been much better, what should I do? Advocate at the school for testing or possibly privately have her tested?

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    Private testing by someone familiar with gifted kids may be valuable for getting to know your daughter's strengths and overall profile.

    Did I understand correctly that she is in second grade at eight years old and is reading at a sixth grade level (6.2)? Yet other students are telling her frequently that she is behind in reading?

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    My dd is also the one of the youngest in her grade (birth date 8/30 and cutoff is 9/1)... there are kids that are almost 15-16 months older than her because we live in a district where lots of kids are held back with summer birthdays. It has not really been a issue for her except maybe a bit socially.

    IQ tests are age normed so your child's age should not be a problem!


    Last edited by Nutmeg; 03/14/14 11:56 AM.
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    I guess it really doesn't compute for me to consider "holding back" a child who is gifted-- no matter when his/her birthday happens to be.

    Those of us with kids who have SUMMER birthdays are, in fact, a bit fortunate in that it's almost an automatic freebie in terms of "acceleration" given how common redshirting has become. For this reason, my DD is among academic peers that range from 3 to 5 years older than she is. If her birthday were in the fall, it'd be more like 2-4y.

    I just don't see the disadvantage. But then again, I'd be WAY happier to have my daughter not be "the top student" in every one of her classes. And usually she is.


    Last edited by HowlerKarma; 03/14/14 12:51 PM.

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    My daughter is a third grader but, technically could have been a second grader if I held her back. "Red shirting" is popular here too and there are a bunch of kids that were held back! I too thought putting her in school when she just turned 5 would be like skipping a grade. I wonder if the school will agree with my reasoning to have her tested (they are aware of her brother being gifted). Or maybe I should not say anything as just do it privately.

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    What do you mean by '"level" the playing field?' Will high test scores get you something you can't currently access at your school?

    I seriously can't see holding back a gifted kid, the regular school pace is so excruciatingly slow as it is.

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    We have a Sept. 1st cut-off and DD missed it by a couple months. We put her in K when she was supposed to go, so she was one of the oldest in the class (although one boy was still 6 months older! Held back). We saw rather quickly that it was not going to work out academically for her so started the process for acceleration. At that time, the district was actually open to it. Now they are much more rigid (just as an aside). So in late Nov. of that year, she went to first grade and was the youngest in that grade. The next oldest kids were a few months older, but most are more like 6-15 months older. She was high average for the rest of that year, but then started surpassing the older kids, and is now one of the top two out of about 80 kids in terms of achievement testing. I think age is a factor for younger kids, but after second or third grade it doesn't matter much anymore. What really mattered for my DD was the fact that she missed an entire year (most of kindergarten, and a few months of first grade), but even that didn't matter after about 6 months.

    That said, most standardized tests for cognitive ability will give both an age percentile and grade percentile. If it's a straight IQ test it will probably only give an age percentile, it won't be based on grade at all.

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    Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
    I guess it really doesn't compute for me to consider "holding back" a child who is gifted-- no matter when his/her birthday happens to be.

    Those of us with kids who have SUMMER birthdays are, in fact, a bit fortunate in that it's almost an automatic freebie in terms of "acceleration" given how common redshirting has become.


    I agree!!! DD8 is one of the youngest students in her grade. I wondered briefly back before K if I should be even considering holding her back, since so many other children with summer birthdays were being held back. She is also rather short, so she just looked SO SMALL next to the other children (especially since some of THEM had been held back). I am SO GLAD now that I did not hold her back! Since she was already reading chapter books, I decided holding her back made little sense. Since that time, she has done extremely well on nationally-normed tests for her grade, and made it into the G&T program that starts in 3rd grade. She is still managing to excel.

    Some tests will be age-normed, some will be grade-normed - in all likelihood, a bright child will do well on either, even if they are young for their grade.

    I am personally very happy that DD has the "small extra challenge" of being one of the younger students in her grade.

    If you are looking for age-normed tests, most IQ tests, the WJ Achievement, and the CogAT, can all usually be age-normed. Still, if your DD is gifted, she is actually at an ADVANTAGE to be already young in the grade, as this is a bit of "natural acceleration."

    Best wishes to you and your DD!

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    Originally Posted by amazondotmom
    I try to explain to her that most of the kids are older (almost a year) and it just doesn't matter how well they do.

    I am not sure I understand exactly what your dd's situation with reading is. If she's a 6.2 reading level, does that mean 6th grade, 2nd month or is it a different scale?

    Are the kids who are saying she doesn't read as well as they do students who actually are reading at a higher level or are they students who are at or below her level and are teasing her?

    If she's reading below level for her grade, you could ask the school to do an eval (and I'd actually recommend seeking out an eval asap, either through school or privately).

    If the issue is teasing or bullying, then I'd address that with respect to the classroom environment.

    Quote
    I would love to have her tested based on her chronological age versus by grade to "level" the playing field.

    As others have mentioned, the type of testing students receive when they are evaluated for giftedness or LDs (IQ and achievement tests such as WISC/WJ-III etc) will be normed against age - but I'm not sure what situation you are referring to re "level the playing field". If it's testing to get accepted into a gifted program, then yes, I would want it to be age-normed (but most of the tests used for this purpose that I'm familiar with are). I personally don't see the need to compare standardized tests given as achievement measures by school for class-wide assessment by age rather than grade level - state testing, for example, is typical 100% achievement based, and is testing against curriculum - so all the students in the grade, regardless of age, should have been exposed to essentially the same curriculum basics.

    I also will add that even though your dd is perhaps the youngest child in her class, that doesn't mean most of the kids in class are 9 months older than she is - there are going to be students with birthdates spread throughout the year.

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    I want to get her tested through the school do you think I have a reasonable request?

    I think whether or not the request is reasonable depends on what type of testing you are looking for and the reasons you are seeking it. Two examples where I think the request would be reasonable are:

    1) You are concerned about her reading level and have evidence that it may be behind where you would expect given her ability.

    2) The school district offers gifted programming and the testing would be used to qualify her for it.

    Best wishes,

    polarbear

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    DS was the youngest in his Kindergarten class in the fall, and among the smallest too. He just narrowly made it before the cut off. And I am super glad we didn't hold him back. Yes he's small and immature but academically it would had been a disaster if we had to wait another year. Basically I look at it as "grade skipped by nature" ... it's a skip we never had to fight the school for smile We ended up homeschooling after the first trimester so he can be academically where ever he needs and wants to be but while he was still at school, we were really happy we didn't have to wait another year.

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