Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy thinking about skipping 1st grade

DS 5 is in Kindergarten. He is reading at about a 4th grade level and doing math at a 2nd grade level. He has been moved up to 1st grade for math since the start of this term. They say he is adjusting well in class.

He goes to an academic extension class on Saturdays, and his teacher there said he should be fine to skip a grade, the only thing she said might be a concern is his very active imagination, which is a polite way of saying he makes up elaborate, realistic stories and insists they are true. She says this might put some of his peers off.

One concern his school has is with his handwriting. It is getting better, but he does tend to write large messy letters.

We will have a meeting with the school at the end of this term to discuss what the plan is for him next year. I know his teacher mentioned that he would still be ahead of his classmates after a grade skip, and that there are pros and cons to the skip. We didn't get a chance to discuss what the pros and cons would be. I think skipping a grade will at least get him closer to his classmates academically. He will still need to go up for math, and English is his strongest area. They elected to do in class extension with him for it this year. I am not really sure what he is doing though.

He is tall for his age, he tends to play with older kids at school. He does have some challenges reading social cues, and he tends to talk about what is on his mind rather than engaging in reciprocal conversation, but I don't think its enough of a concern to prevent a grade skip.

Does anyone have any advice on issues to consider?

Been awhile since I've seen these, so here's an excellent collection of links specifically dealing with grade-skipping.

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If you haven't already done so, take some time to read through the report, "A Nation Deceived"
http://www.nationdeceived.org/

There's an executive summary to get your feet wet (http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Nation_Deceived/Executive_Summary.aspx), and then you can plow into the full report for all the gory details.

You should also take some time to read some of the Personal Stories at the Nation Deceived website from students, teachers & parents:
http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/Personal_Stories/Read.aspx

This article might also be of interest, because it addresses some of the concerns of NOT putting your child into an appropriately challenging environment:
What a Child Doesn't Learn
http://www.portage.k12.in.us/cms/li...685/pdfs/April/Whatachilddoesntlearn.pdf

Our son skipped K, starting 1st @ age 4y11m. As with your child, the recommendation for skip came from the school... just a couple days before the start of the new school year! At that point, I was extremely ignorant about the world of GT-Ed, and even more clueless about all the potential testing. I'd have to say that reading through the personal stories above helped me the most.

Our son completed a second skip at age 8, from 4th into 5th (6th for math) and did very well, both academically and socially.

Despite my frequent recommendation of the "Nation Deceived" report, I'll be the first to acknowledge that grade-skipping (single or multiple) isn't for everyone. And, as many have discovered, grade-skipping doesn't always provide a "fix" in and of itself.

But you're off to a good start -- you're asking questions.

Thanks Dandy, I will check out those resources. I know grade skipping can have benefits, and is really want to make sure DS gets challenged soon as he already has an aversion to trying work that he thinks he might get wrong. And he needs to learn how to put in effort and get a bit desensitised to getting things wrong as you are learning.

I think we will end up going with the grade skip, but I just want to be well informed

Have you asked him what he wants to do? I have let DS8 be the deciding factor in these decisions. When we moved, he decided he would prefer to be in second grade with age-peers though he knew he would not be challenged academically. He's very self-aware and needs to have a say in these things.

Cautionary tale, though not for the reasons you might think...

My DS, now 8, skipped 1st grade. The thinking behind the skip was that the 1st grade curriculum - geared mainly toward teaching kids to read - would be like purgatory for him. DS was super excited to go to 2nd grade instead of 1st.

In hindsight, I think I was very naive about what the skip would mean for him and allowed myself to become very excited about putting a "floor" underneath him, thinking he'd flourish once he got past the "learning to read year" in school (in K he was already on a 3rd+ reading level, and about the same for math). My excitement clearly rubbed off on him, and he went into 2nd with HUGE expectations of tons of glorious learning, all day long!

By November of 2nd grade, I wound up pulling him out of school to homeschool because he was miserable and dispirited. He broke down in tears one morning, claiming he never learned anything and would be sick if he wasn't allowed to learn.

I don't regret the skip, though. We homeschooled for remainder of 2nd, and preserved the skip when he reentered public school the following year. Not great in 3rd either, but at least he had a better teacher and I learned to be "polite-pushy" to get at least some differentiation in the work he does (some of which I send in). We also after school and summer school at DS' request. He really isn't happy unless he's learning.

Beyond just getting a skip, I wish I'd had a chance to talk to the receiving teacher in advance and work out a plan for adhering to his gifted EP -- perhaps it would have made a difference. I don't think his teacher that year understood giftedness at all, especially the misery brought on by constant repetition and snail-pacing.

FWIW, re: the handwriting...

My DS had excellent handwriting at home prior to starting K, and a few months into K was frustrated because of his teacher's complaints about his handwriting. After meeting with his teacher, I solved the puzzle.

At home, DS had been writing on ONE line in composition notebooks. At school, he was expected to write huge letters, also on lined paper -- the kind resembling sentence strips. When his teacher and I compared samples of his writing, it became obvious that DS was simply not capable of writing on those huge lines. His K teacher said writing on one normal-sized line was an advanced skill -- even in 1st they used the huge lined paper. Once she saw for herself that he had fantastic handwriting on regular paper, she never gave him the standard K paper again.

So, at least in our case, he really did not have a handwriting issue at all. Just could not produce large enough letters to be seen from the moon! (We giggle over this now, but it was a big deal and soured much of his K experience).

Good luck!

I think 1st grade *was* like purgatory for my DC and it was even a little damaging due to boredom and acting out. However, I agree with your advice not to be over-excited about a skip as it won't fix everything. So much has to do with the teachers involved, also.

Good luck! See if your school will use the IOWA acceleration scale and ask for very motivated teachers.

DD went from the middle of K to the middle of 1st and it was fine, although only solved the problem of her being bored with reading/math for about a year. It would have been worse to NOT do it, though.

With DS I would hesitate more because he is too far behind in various areas, like writing, motor skills, the reciprocal conversation thing (he tends to rattle on about topics that don't interest other people), and various other odd quirks.

If handwriting were to be the bellwether, my DS would still be in K. Especially with a skip (ds skipped 2nd,) don't expect the school to help with the handwriting. There seems to be a common disconnect between services needed and doing well.

Have you read the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS)?

Thanks for all the input. It gives me some good stuff to think about. I will bring up the Iowa scales at our meeting with the school. That is in about 4 weeks. Ii am interested to hear the schools opinion.

I definitely don't see a grade skip as a solution. My son managed to get to a 4th grade reading level and second grade math level with no formal eduction, so presumably if they are teaching him well he should be advancing faster than the academic years, but at least it will put him closer to his level. But then my areas of concern would be social and emotional. Instinct tells me the grade skip would actually be beneficial for these areas, but an objective test such as the Iowa scales would be good to base the decision on rather than gut feeling.

I will give an update after the school meeting.