Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advice on repeating a year

I have posted before, but we are still up in the air on a decision. I have been convinced one way and then the other.

Basically DD5 started school this year, she was only 4.5 at the beginning of the year, and she is struggling with learning to read and write. We love the school she is attending. It does have a very high academic standard, and DD is struggling. We have to decide over the next couple of weeks whether we will have her repeat K or move on to year 1. Here is the info we are working with:

At school: she is making slow progress with her reading and her writing. She has shown signs of being disengaged and her teacher feels she is finding it all overwhelming. Socially she is very well adjusted. She has friends, and she is a very thoughtful, empathetic member of the class.

She took the WJ-Cog and scored in the moderately gifted range.


The psychologist diagnosed her with DCD for fine motor skills and we have started her in OT.

A speech pathologist assessment found her to be performing above average for her age in phonological awareness skills, sight reading, and spelling

DD disengages when she makes mistakes, and she currently has low academic self-esteem, which we have been working on building up.

I see the pros of grade retention as:
With the skills she has developed this year, she start the next year at top of the class rather than struggling, so she might build up her self-esteem

She will go from the youngest in her class to being in the middle of the age range

I see the cons as:
She might see the grade retention as confirmation of ideas she has developed of being 'dumb'. She might see it as a big failure, and disengage from school.

Socially she is quite mature, I am not sure if the grade below would be as good a fit socially for her

instinctively, I feel like reading is going to click for her, and while I am sure the school will challenge her appropriately even if she does repeat, if reading and writing are the main problems, then maybe she just needs to be given a bit more time to catch up.

I just don't know what is the best decision. She might end up having to repeat year 1 if we send her on and she can not catch up.

I know most of the talk on this forum is about grade acceleration questions. Has anyone ever faced a similar decision? Do you have any advice, or questions I should be asking myself or the school?

What do you mean by slow progress? Is she on grade level? If she is on (or above) grade level, I would most likely keep her where she is. I'm presuming you had good reason to skip, and I think many kids start off slow with reading for some reason. She may suddenly take off very soon.

That said, you say the school has a high academic standard. My MG kid would have been able to easily handle a skip at most schools, but it would not have been appropriate at her gifted magnet or perhaps a private or a very high SES school.

From what you have written here I would keep her where she is.

The major concern I see in this placement is that "she is struggling with learning to read and write". Reading is developmental what I mean by that is for many kids they just need to be the right age. Reading doesn't come naturally to many kids until 6-7 years old and it's still very normal for a young 5 year old to not be reading yet. I've known kids who were bright and gifted who didn't really read until the beginning of 2nd grade and then at that time they just took off and were by mid year one of the best readers in the class.

As for the writing you appear to be addressing that issue.

So I can't say for sure about the standards in your school. But around here K standards are very low.. A gifted slightly older child can pick up the academics taught in K very very quickly.

I suggest you look at the long view. If as you you predict reading just suddenly clicks for her sometime next year, what will it be like for her in 2, 5 years from now?

Is a year of homeschooling an option?

The reason that I ask is that at the end of that year-- you could either place her BACK with her cohort, or you could place her in the year behind, as seems appropriate.

This side-steps the issue of whether or not she feels "dumb" or whether she is labeling herself a "struggler" or a "good student."

On the other hand, maybe give it another year in 1st and see then, with the idea of a homeschool 1(repeat) or gr2 year after that?

It doesn't sound as though her social skills NEED the school setting, necessarily, as that is a strength in spite of her age.

I am pretty sure she falls within the 'normal' range for her grade, she is just closer to the bottom of that range. And the range within her class is skewed toward the higher end. She wasn't technically grade skipped, we had originally signed her up for a school with a birthday cutoff 3 months later than the school she is attending. When I applied I hadn't even realised she was a month younger than the school's cutoff date. But yes, I thought she was ready to start, and that in the longer term she might benefit from being younger. I have a DS6 at the same school, and he skipped year 1. This is also a factor in our decision with DD as she knows he skipped a year, and for her then to repeat might have a bigger effect on her self esteem than the same decision would if she did not have an accelerated brother.

Supposedly the next year is a big step up academically, but if it really ends up being too much for her, there is always the possibility to repeat year 1.


I seriously considered it halfway through this year! but unfortunately, no it is not an option for us.

That sounds like good advice. Sometimes it would be great to be able to see the future! I could know if she would sink, swim, or fly in year 1. I guess I know that a skip in the future is unlikely, so it might definitely be worthwhile to have her younger if she does end up being strong academically.

I wouldn't recommend retaintion for your DD but IF her reading doesn't catch up and she is held back at the end of Year First, it would mean that your DD would spend another year struggling and then being held back. I do not like that as an option, personally.

Aye, there's the rub

If your dd's teacher has a concern that she is not keeping up and in over her head re the expectations for K, and is recommending she repeat K, they need to offer some quantitative evidence supporting their concerns. One of the pieces of information you should absolutely have to make sense of whether or not she should repeat K is knowledge of what reading level she is at (both baseline and where that falls relative to classroom peers). It's one thing for a teacher to say she's struggling, but if she's struggling enough she needs to repeat, the teacher needs to show you evidence that is based on data. Quite honestly, they should have some of that evidence for all their students anyway - most K-1 classrooms have some kind of measure in place to determine what reading level children are at.

Next thing to consider - if she's had a year of instruction in reading and its' making progress - why? It could be developmental, but it could also be a red flag that there's a challenge preventing her from making progress with reading. *IF* it's developmental, then let her go to 1st, and at some point in time in the next year she's most likely going to make that leap into being a true reader - on her own. *IF* it's not developmental, but instead an indicator that she has some type of learning challenge impacting reading, then holding her back is *NOT* the solution - she will most likely need an individualized instruction plan. It's been the experience of many of us here with 2e kids that the way to remediate the 2nd e is not retaining a child at a curricular level below their ability, but to instead place them in the educational setting that matches their cognitive ability and provide the appropriate accommodations/remediation and support that is addresses their learning challenge in that setting. That's where your child is going to make the most progress in learning how to deal with a learning challenge.

Sorry to get on a soapbox about it, but personal experience has made me a bit passionate about that subject

*IF* your dd was showing signs of difficulty adjusting to kindergarten due to maturity issues, I might consider having her repeat it - but that's the only situation, other than a situation where she's clearly falling *below* grade level and you're certain it's not due to a learning challenge.

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - I have an acquaintance here who was in a similar position - she was told the private school her child was enrolled in would hold her back to repeat kindergarten because her reading was not at grade level. The parent's response was to switch back to public school to avoid having her child repeat K, and she had her child tutored over the summer by a reading specialist in an attempt to be sure her child wasn't behind peers in reading ability in first grade. What happened, in her case, was that the reading specialist found there was truly a learning challenge. But that's just one child in one situation. My experience as the parent of kids with 2e is that recognizing and deciphering reading challenges in young children is difficult due to the wide range of "typical" reading development plus the vary wide range of skills needed to read.

I would strongly echo polarbear. If you clearly define the problem as "reading concerns", it's not clear to me that retention would solve it - but it might create many more new problems. If there's a learning issue, more of the same won't help. If instead there's a temporary developmental lag, repeating won't help.

My totally biased, not-there, don't have all the info, two-cents worth is to deal directly with the problem area, reading, and tutor it directly (at school, home or external, whatever is most feasible).

I am a bit confused, though, trying to reconcile those extremely high reading-skills achievement scores with reading problems? Not sure what I am missing in terms of where she is having difficulty. If she can demonstrate specific skills at that kind of level, yet struggles to read in practice, that suggests you want to try and figure out what is different in the two scenarios. Vision, maybe, as a quasi-random thought? I don't know what the WJ tests look like, but I do know there's a big difference, if you have vision issues, between reading busy text vs reading single words on flashcards (with our reading remediation program, my DD almost never makes mistakes on the latter). Can you talk to tester, teachers, and from your own experience, and figure out what, exactly, is different from the tasks she performed on the WJ and the regular reading where you see struggle?

ditto pb & pp101.

As to the WJ reading assessments: the subtests you have listed were all measures of single word skills: single word phonetic and sight decoding, single word spelling and phonetic encoding. Although items are not all presented one word to a page, they are in widely-spaced single word columns, with only a handful of words per page. (And spelling, of course, is one word at a time.) Even writing samples, for a 5 yo, requires very little writing of more than one or two words at a time. (And never more than two sentences, on the WJ, even at higher levels.) So this suggests that she is not so much having difficulty learning to read, as having difficulty reading in connected text, which involves additional skills than decoding per se, such as tracking. With a Dx of DCD, one can easily imagine that there may be motor coordination factors affecting her reading, as well (the oft-noted tracking and convergence, atypical/poorly-coordinated saccades, etc.). Fluency may become an issue in the future, though at this level, I doubt the teachers are concerned about it yet.

Good info above, but here's an alternative hypothesis, because there are a few statements here that are red flags for me:

"she is making slow progress with her reading and her writing."

Ummm... we're talking about K, right? And a kid who scored in the upper 90-percentiles on all assessments, cognitive and achievement? I mean, how much reading and writing is there, really, in K?

"She has shown signs of being disengaged and her teacher feels she is finding it all overwhelming."

"[the school] does have a very high academic standard"

I've seen it all too often that when a school says it has "a very high academic standard," that's a coded message for "We are severely drill-and-kill. We will overload your children with practice both in class and at home, and they will learn to hate learning." Place a younger-age (less EF, less tolerance for boredom), truly gifted (eager to LEARN) child in such an environment, and you can easily check off all the boxes:

[x] Disengaged
[x] Overwhelmed
[x] Struggling (apparently)

Testing this hypothesis also requires you to go to the school, meet with the teacher, see the work that is being done, and dig into how your DD's day is being spent.

Another alternative hypothesis...

Your child's social well-adjustment may be a product of dumbing herself down and working below her true knowledge level. My DD attempted something exactly like this in her K year. She was fooling her teacher, but she didn't fool us. It was very difficult for DD to convince us she didn't know how to write an "M" when her play room was decorated with scraps of paper containing full, beautifully-formed phrases she'd written at least a full year prior.

Extroverted, gifted girls will often be caught in a conflict between their very powerful social and cognitive needs. For my DD10, satisfying both has been a constant struggle for the entire family.

Thanks for all of your responses.



She is on a reading level 5, but only just. I forgot to ask at the last meeting what the range is and what the minimum expectation is at the end of K. I know from parents at other schools that for some schools the minimum is a 6 at the end of K, and other schools expect a 10. I do know they ability group students for literacy and DD goes with the group that goes to the support teacher. They also are expected to write a couple of descriptive sentences about things they have done, and DD struggles with this. I will be sure to ask about reading levels at the next meeting.



Yes this can be tricky. The psychologist said DD showed some potential signs of various types of Dyslexia, but that these signs were also common in early readers, and recommended that we keep an eye on how DD progresses. I certainly don't want to hold her back because of a LD.



I think this is important too. I am not sure if perfectionism is playing a part here. With the math program they use, she was loving it the first time she tried it, until she got one wrong. Then she refused to do any more. I thought we had moved a bit past that, but she was doing the math last weekend, and she again wanted to stop when she made a mistake. So obviously an area for us to work on. I am wondering if this is causing her to resist reading instruction at school since it is challenging for her. She might just say, it's too hard, I can't do it instead of trying. That is another common thing for her, to avoid tasks that she finds challenging.

Vision is another possible issue. Thanks for your comments aeh. She has seen two behavioural optometrists. The first found tracking issues, and just wanted her to wear prism glasses, the second also found tracking and fatigue issues, and wanted further assessment and probably vision therapy, which we are not pursuing at the moment due to time and money constraints. She does wear prism glasses at school now. We will be consulting with an educational psychologist next week, and I plan to ask her opinion on vision therapy. I know many families here have seen great results with vision therapy.

Dude - your comments are interesting. I know within the family dynamic DD established herself as the non academic one. She would often ask me to stop talking when DS had asked a question about something and I was explaining the answer. I am not sure about the dumbing herself down for peers, but I do think she has partly formed her school identity in contrast to DS. Unfortunately she also compares herself with him and thinks he is much 'smarter'.

What is level 5? Is it DRA or PM which are about the same, or something else? If it were here i would ask for a 1/2 (K/1) composite. They usually ability group at that level and she would be mid age range. Then you could decide what year she was later. Is something like that possible.

This document breaks down the skill expectations to be achieved in K, 1 and 2. It mentions RR level 9 which I assume is reading recovery level but there are many different systems.

http://www.earlyactionforsuccess.com.au/pdf/Benchmarking2013.pdf

I read a bit of the literature on repeating some time ago and it is not generally recommended even for students who are struggling as there is often little to be gained staying back.

If your DD is happy in that peer group I would stay with them while investigating and supporting any specific learning difficulties. To build self efficacy challenge is important. Your DD is young and she is learning to learn, how to meet a challenge and work through it. Lowering challenge through repeating won't necessarily be beneficial to self efficacy. Doing well on easy tasks contributes little to learning, meeting a challenge does.

Having said that, it can be a fine line between good struggle and hurtful struggle so I understand your concern. She doesn't sound as though she is falling behind though and developmental growth can occur in big leaps so you may find she takes off at some point.

I helped in my DDs class in kindergarten. There were kids struggling to learn their letters. None were held back and all were reading by end of year 1.

Oh, yeah, lovely sibling dynamics. I didn't realize that was in play here, because that tends to play a BIG role. Knowing this now, I'd suggest that this is the primary area to focus. I assume your DS is the older one. Younger siblings tend to look for space that the older ones are not occupying as a way to compete for parental approbation. So if DS has "the smart one" role locked down, she might abandon that role and look to "the athletic one", "the musical/artistic one", "the funny one," etc.

The way I would confront this is with counter-messaging, sometimes direct, sometimes discreet. So I might directly mention DD's test scores to her, and present them as the reason I unshakably know that if she wanted to, she could do great. And I'd point out that DS is just as smart as she is, he's just been at this learning game longer. Discreetly, I'd have a conversation with my spouse within DD's earshot discussing a study which shows that second children often turn out to be smarter than their older siblings, but are often afraid to show it (whether I actually find such a study to discuss is irrelevant ).

The research on retention generally finds it to be helpful to achievement in the short-term, but not in the long-term, and detrimental emotionally, especially to boys, with significantly higher dropout rates in adolescence. It also tends to mask learning difficulties that would be better served with targeted remediation or accommodation, resulting in children with exceptionalities having to struggle unidentified for longer.

In this case, it is possible that, not only is the younger sibling taking the "non-academic" role to avoid poaching on older sib's territory, but she may be doing so as a coping mechanism, in the interests of a coherent storyline for herself that explains academic struggles that she intuits are discrepant.

So in addition to counter-messaging, obtaining additional data to explain cognitive and academic intra-individual differences may be helpful. For example, was her WJ cognitive uniform across subtests, or were some scores much lower?

[quote=aeh
In this case, it is possible that, not only is the younger sibling taking the "non-academic" role to avoid poaching on older sib's territory, but she may be doing so as a coping mechanism, in the interests of a coherent storyline for herself that explains academic struggles that she intuits are discrepant.

So in addition to counter-messaging, obtaining additional data to explain cognitive and academic intra-individual differences may be helpful. For example, was her WJ cognitive uniform across subtests, or were some scores much lower? [/quote]

ITA with aeh on this - and one other thing I'd note. I'd give some weight to the teacher having concerns. When my ds was in early elementary, it was so easy for me to pass off on signs that he had a challenge and remarks from teachers simply because I knew how smart he was - it was obvious from what I saw at home and what he said when he talked. The thing was, the teachers' observations also were very spot-on, even though they didn't point to high intelligence. A teacher spends a great deal of the day with our kids. If a teacher feels a child is overwhelmed, chances are *something * is up.

There was a question somewhere above also re why would the WJ-III Achievement scores be so high if there was a challenge. aeh did a wonderful job explaining how that can happen, I just wanted to mention that this *exact* thing happened with my dd who has vision issues. She was absolutely struggling to read, but had very solidly high, consistent, WJ-III Achievement scores. You could see a glimpse of her vision issues in her WISC scores, however, where she had an extremely large dip in two subtests that relied on visual discrimination.

Best wishes,

polarbear

That link was very useful ndw. Thanks. You are all giving me great ideas to consider.




DD looked fairly level when her tests were divided into three broad abilities. But looking at the actual subtests, I do see some variation. Maybe you could see if anything of note jumps out at you aeh? The report has subtests listed under a variety of clusters, with some subtests included in more than one cluster, so I am not sure the best way to organise them here for analysis, but I will list them. NOTE: scores removed for privacy

Rapid picture naming was definitely low.

Ours is level 12 on your sixth birthday (will have been at school exatly 12 months as everyone starts on their fifth birthday) so I would say level 5 after a whole year is very low but not unheard of.

If you hold her back no can she skip if she does suddenly surge forward?

That is a considerable amount of variation, spanning over 2.5 SD, with certain clusters diverse enough to make the cluster score less representative of her true ability.

The Verbal Ability cluster is a combination of verbal comp and general info, which encompass an 18 pt range, over an SD. I would be concerned that expectations of MG-ness are an underestimate of her verbal reasoning ability.

Thinking Ability is derived from four smaller clusters: long-term retrieval, visual-spatial thinking, auditory processing, and fluid reasoning. (The component subtests are listed in pairs in your post, beginning with retrieval fluency.) FR has more weight in the TA score than the other areas do, which is why the TA score is not a simple average. There is some diversity among these subtests, but not a huge amount, as, though it spans just over an SD across the whole TA cluster, each of the clusters is relatively consistent internally. Long-term retrieval and visual-spatial are the weakest, in the high average range, and fluid reasoning the strongest, on the border of superior and very superior.

Cognitive Efficiency includes visual matching, decision speed, numbers reversed, memory for words (the processing speed and short-term memory clusters, respectively; I've listed them in pairs here). The range of subtest scores is relatively tight.

Where we get into some differences is in the Cognitive Fluency cluster (which was not reported), consisting of retrieval fluency, decision speed, and rapid picture naming. This cluster includes two of the lower subtest scores, and one of the higher ones, resulting in a range approaching 2 SDs. For her lowest, rpn, she was required to track across multiple lines on a page, naming images of familiar objects. This is not unlike what fluent readers do, once they are word calling, and not phonetically decoding every word. In rf, she listed as many words as she could in the allowed time, given a specific category. Usually kids with deep vocabularies (see her verbal comp score) do fairly well on this. We know from other data that the words are there, so this score suggests that her access to them is the gating item. She did well on decision speed, which does not require much in terms of retrieval skills, since the images are all provided. This task is different from the other two, in that it emphasizes reasoning (visual associations), rather than retrieval.

The pattern across this cluster suggests to me that retrieval efficiency in general is a vulnerability, and especially so when crossing visual and verbal modes, which has implications for reading. Though I am less concerned about visual tracking after seeing the strong scores in visual matching and decision speed, how much of a factor it is is still unclear, so that's definitely a rule-out I would pursue.

If you choose to pursue additional assessment, you may wish to consider measures of reading fluency (though you may have to wait a bit for those, as many of them are not normed for 5 yos, since most 5 yos are not reading; the PAL-II does include kindergarten norms). And, though the phonological processing tasks administered look pretty good, there are other aspects of PP that could be questionable, (specifically rapid naming) which might show up more strongly on a more comprehensive measure of PP, such as the CTOPP-2. (You have data that show this already, but in the event of an institution needing additional documentation, that would be one place to turn.)

Our school year runs Feb-Dec, so she has not been in school for a year yet. It is hard to say how many more levels she might move up over the rest of the school year. The link that ndw provided says level 9 for the end of the year, so she would need to move up 4 more levels.

If we hold her back, it would be very difficult to move her up again. That is part of what is making me hesitant to hold her back. But I really also don't want year 1 to be a huge struggle for her. If only I knew if and when reading might click for her.

Thank you aeh for taking the time to give such a thorough response. Are the issues with retrieval something that would have an impact on developing early reading skills? Is it something that can be worked on, or would benefit from a bit more time to develop? Or is it something she will learn to accommodate as she learns to read?

I guess for me, repeating K would seem a reasonable idea if the challenges she is facing are age related. Then being older would be a benefit. If they are not age related, then it seems like being older won't really benefit her.

I did have a chance to see her interacting with some of the preschool children recently, and I think she would be okay socially with the repeat in terms of finding some kids she could get on well with.

It seems every time I make my mind up about what I think is best to do, DD says something, or I observe something that starts me thinking the other decision would be better. I am very glad to have an appointment with an educational psychologist tomorrow. Hopefully her advice will help us decide and not just give me more variables to stress over

I am also hoping she will have a recommendation of a behavioural optometrist if she thinks it worthwhile to see one. We have seen three different ones between DS and DD, with each having an exam with two different optometrists, and every time they seem to find a problem, but they each recommended different lenses. I just start to wonder how valid the assessments are when they keep coming up with different prescriptions for the kids. Especially as DD is very resistant to the testing, and I would not be very confident in the answers she is giving during the eye exams.

Everything is somewhat developmental. But, within that larger context, retrieval fluency is neurologically-based, so not really something that is essentially age-related. That is, all other things being equal, I don't expect this area to spontaneously catch up to her other neurocognitive skills. (Of course, neurological development is occurring, too, so it's still not impossible that this is asynchrony.)

Yes, it is quite likely to impact early and later reading skills, as well as handwriting, spelling, written expression, and math fact fluency (and downstream math calculations), among other things. Overlearning (many repetitions and additional practice) generally helps the specific skill, but may or may not reduce the effects to the point that there is no noticeable impact, and doesn't really affect underlying retrieval fluency at the neurocognitive level. As she gets older, she may develop her own compensatory strategies. (Many intelligent adults with retrieval vulnerabilities or other processing speed deficits mask the need for additional processing and wait time with various verbal or physical stalling techniques, such as long, meaningless preliminary phrases, pensively tidying stationery supplies before replying, or reflecting/rephrasing the question prior to answering.)

As to the overall question of retention: as I've mentioned before, the research on retention is generally negative or neutral with regard to long-term effects. Avoiding the negative effects appears to be mainly a function of how the family presents it. If you and her other parent can come to a comfortable consensus on your best approximation of what is best for her at this time, and then just move forward with whatever comes, she will most likely take this as a positive experience, regardless of the placement you choose. My personal bias is toward moving forward, rather than repeating, but you know your child better than anyone on this board, and you are also the only ones in a position to influence how she perceives her educational placement, which is the most important factor in whether she experiences it as a good or ill.

So I guess I'm saying, collect as many perspectives as you can, and then just make a decision. (Obviously, following up on any potential learning or sensory problems at the same time.) For your specific child, she will be okay if you're okay.

I think we can all relate to how hard such decisions are when there is no absolute path to follow. I can't help noting Aeh's comments about the lack of norms on reading fluency for five year olds as most aren't reading yet. Your DD is not long turned five! Most kids starting school are five plus these days although that wasn't the case when I started school when there were lots of four year olds. So your DD is reading at level five at an age when lots of kids are not reading at all. And she may be doing it with more challenges than most kids if she has some retrieval fluency issues. So kudos to your DD. She is doing very well for her age.

If you redo kindergarten she will be with kids who are at the beginning of the learning process again. That isn't necessarily going to provide the atmosphere of challenge she is receiving now.

Like aeh I would err on the side of moving up to year one after next term and give her a chance to make more progress. It will give you a lot more information about her developmental growth in the context of her current peer group. You still have a quarter of the school year to go and kids can change quickly at this age. Try not to churn on the decision if possible. I know how that feels.

Thanks ndw and aeh. My partner and I are also leaning toward moving her on. So unless the psychologist raises some major, as of yet unconsidered, issue tomorrow, I think we will commit to that decision and make ourselves positive about it. You are right ndw, there is no point stressing over the decision indefinitely. I just hadn't realised we had to make a final decision this early in the year. But I guess that is for the best too, since we can put our energy into supporting the decision we make rather than worrying about what to do.

I can't get the quote to work sorry.

I thought you were in the US. It is not uncommon for kids to go through those first levels slower then speed up once the hit about level 6 until level 12 or so (at least that is what i was told). It is also quite a reasonable target to go up four levels by december. The kids who are racing ahead will probably slow soon (if not they will just not be given any instruction from my experience).

Do they have composite classes where you are?

Thanks for the information about reading levels puffin. It's nice to hear that at least for some kids they start moving through levels faster. Maybe DD will get to level 9 this year. Fingers crossed.

Our school does not use composite classes, so unfortunately that will not be an option.

I found this article and it might reassure you a little.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...our-child-s-reading-level_n_7386408.html

And this might be helpful as a structured approach to what to look for in reading attainment

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/sch...ine/english/continuum/pages/reading.aspx

FWIW My DS was a later reader than many. Our schools don't do reading levels (well they do, but they don't give out that info to parents so I'm in the dark). I will say that DS wasn't reading in K and barely reading in grade 1 and then average in grade 2 (based on teacher's comments and my own observations). In grade 3 his reading completely took off and he's reading constantly now going into 4.

His teachers up until grade 2 were stressed. His writing has also been an issue and he now has a formal written expression LD diagnosis.

Our schools basically never hold kids back so we were never given that option. It would have been a complete disaster in our case since he's now reading above grade level and I don't think any amount of delay would help with his writing. Of course YMMV. Listen to what they have to say, remediate what you can and follow your gut. Best of luck!

No advice because it has to be right for what is your child. But here is my experience...

We held back, and there are issues both ways.

Ours has DCD and was recently diagnosed with disorder of written expression. I have been posting about this on another thread. If you are reading around, you will see it. When she as 4 and in pre-k, she developed severe anxiety issues and because her bday was a few weeks before the cutoff, drs and preschool teachers encouraged us to give her the gift of time. So we gave her the gift of time for motor and writing and held her back intellectually. I still think we did the right thing, but it is still a really uncomfortable, frustrating fit. Our situation is different than yours because she started k right at 6, so she is older than grade, not younger.

Disadvantages: 1) any time you aren't making the school approved age/grade decision, when there are problems they can just say, "well if x was in the right grade, this would be different" and you can't prove them wrong, 2) mine is ashamed to be in her grade and would love to be a grade higher, 3) mine would have more academic peers in the next grade up, 4) other parents don't see my child's weaknesses because they aren't verbal and I know some of them think we are trying to "game the system," 5) she does get bored in school and her mind does wander and 6) I wonder if teachers would have been more gentle about her undiagnosed LD if she didn't seem so cognitively strong compared to the younger kids in the classroom.

Advantages: we DO need time to figure out how to cope with the LDs that have caused her so many problems, 2) because she is old for her grade it is easier to not have to live with the "well she is young for her grade, let's wait and see," 3) because she's not struggling to learn academics in school, we can save the frustration solely for the LDs.

She is a self motivated learner, so holding her back academically doesn't keep her from learning. In fact, she has more time to follow her interests. Our state allow them to place out of a grade if the make 90s or above on a series of grade level tests. The trick is that some of those tests are content specific and want answers that aren't the best logical answers and need to be parroted back from the curriculum. But once we are confident that she can deal w the LDs, I'd have no problem with lettin her read the next grade up textbooks and taking those tests, if she wants to.

Thank you Chay and Question202 for taking the time to share your experiences. And thanks to everyone who has shared their ideas and time with me. We have decided we will send DD to year 1 and hopefully with the support of the OT her handwriting will progress, and we will support her reading at home. I think the social benefits of her staying with her peers is a really big factor at the moment. And my gut feeling is that she will make a breakthrough with the reading.

The idea that her repeating is less a repeat than readjusting her grade placement to what it should be for her age had me thinking the research on repeating was not necessarily that relevant in our case, but really that is an adult way of looking at it. From DD's perspective, it would still be doing a year again, and I worry about the effects that will have on her self-esteem, self-efficacy, and motivation. I guess at this stage, these concerns weigh heavier than the possibility of a rough, struggling year 1.

Hopefully we are not back here this time next year deciding whether to repeat year 1 or not, but if we are, we will deal with that in light of an additional year's worth of knowledge about DD's academic life.

DD's reading level was tested today, and she went from level 5 to level 9, so she is at the minimum recommended level now. And still 6 weeks left to go in term. Yay

Oh, that's good news! How does she feel about her progress?

That is good to hear. The books will get better too.

Brilliant sometimes it really is wait and see

She is feeling really proud, aeh. She had commented a few days before they tested her that she thought the level 5 books were too easy and she couldn't wait to get tested again. I had noticed she was starting to work her way through longer words and not just guess based in the first letter or two. When she brought home the first level 9 reader I was a bit nervous as it definitely was longer with more big words, but she is working her way through the books beautifully.

Thanks for all your comments and support as we worked our way through this tough decision. I can really breathe a sigh of relief and be happy with the decision we have made.