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    Joined: Feb 2012
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    KJP Offline
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    Just my experience here -

    2012 DS started K early at four
    2013 Repeated K
    2014 Progressed to first
    2015 Progressed to second
    2015 Accelerated to third after two months in second

    I highly recommend trying Toe by Toe. My son was evaluated by the Eides (2e specialists) in 2013. Doing Toe by Toe at home was one of their recommendations for him and at $40 for the book and 20 minutes a day, it was the least expensive. It is available on Amazon. It certainly won't harm anything to work with her using that book even if she doesn't have dyslexia.

    Joined: Mar 2014
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    People have varying opinions on this board, so you will get that. I have a daughter that scores at the 99.9th percentile in every IQ area (with the exception of processing speed which was 90th percentile) and I am still not a fan of grade skips in the early years. There are so many other skills, social, emotional, fine motor that go into early school success. I think some of these skills are just age related and it does not matter how high your IQ is. In addition, if your child is gifted and a high achiever (the students that skips are often best for) then not only will you see it but the teachers will to usually (I got a call after the first week of kindergarten). I am also of the mind (and research supports) that early academics are generally not good for children, play and creativity is how they learn. Early academics will almost always limit play time and I don't ever see that as a positive.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...cademic-training-produces-long-term-harm

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    With the achievement and IQ test scores, my DS7 can easily skip one grade. However, we decided not to do that. I agree with sallymom, besides academics, there are so many other things the kids need to learn and they are equally if not more important than academics. Emotionally we don't think he's mature enough to be in a grade up. We also like him to make more friends in his own age group. He's had trouble making friends last year in K. Now he's made more and more friends in his first grade class. Both the teacher and we are very pleased with the progress. The school has started an individual learning plan and we are going to work on a math program as supplement at home. As long as he's not bored in school and getting challenged academically, we are good with him staying in the current grade level.

    Joined: Apr 2012
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    Is pulling her out of school for a year an option? If you could homeschool, you would be able to work thru the challenges she is facing while building on her strengths. Then you could put her back in grade 1- so it would undo the skip without lowering her self esteem.

    Joined: Sep 2011
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    Dubsyd, I went back and looked at your previous posts about your dd, just to try to remember what you were thinking when this came up previously. I may be remembering this wrong, but I think I saw in one post that she has a diagnosis of DCD. You mention she's been in OT etc - I am wondering if it's possible she might also be dyslexic or have some other type of reading challenge. It sounds like she's not making the progress in reading (or math) that you'd expect based on her ability scores - and I think whether or not you retain her in K or keep her in 1st etc isn't really as much the issue as first understanding why she's not making progress.

    If she does have a reading challenge, I wouldn't hold her back because of it - I'd advocate for remediation and accommodations and keep her placed where her intellectual ability is appropriately placed. If it's simply a matter of needing another year to catch up, I'd be ok with retaining her - but from reading previous posts this appears to be an issue that you've pondered for quite awhile and she's not showing signs of making those catch-up jumps on her own yet.

    Just my take on it - but before thinking through grade placement, I'd want a closer look at evaluating what's really up with her reading and math achievement and challenges.

    Best wishes,

    polarbear

    Last edited by polarbear; 02/25/16 12:21 PM.
    Joined: Oct 2014
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    Totally agree with polarbear. You don't yet know what is the problem you are trying to fix, so it's impossible to judge whether the solution is a good one. You are still stuck with the same fundamental question: is she not progressing simply because she is young and not ready, or because there is a fundamental processing deficit of some kind getting in the way?

    If the former, then time is all she needs, and repeating an easy solution. But you really need to know if time is, in fact, what she needs. If she is instead 2E, no amount of time spent doing "more of the same" is going to help, so repeating would only exacerbate the problem. If 2E, she will need *different* - therapy, remediation, different kinds of instruction and accommodations, whatever her situation calls for.

    Your daughter is young enough that diagnosis is trickier, but there are nonetheless clear indications for dyslexia at that age, and an experienced psych can assess them. It also sounds like your DD still has question marks around both auditory and visual processing; you need to find specialists you trust, so you can get diagnosis you have confidence in and follow-through on any needed therapy or accommodations. Both auditory and visual processing can cause major problems with learning, and both have symptoms that overlap with dyslexia. I have lived through untreated disabilities, which just keep building up anxiety and fear in the classroom. The longer they're left, the harder it is to get a child back to the point where they feel safe, trusting and confident, and are willing and able to learn.

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    A huge thank you to everyone who responded to my post. You are right Expat Mama, I have been back and forth on deciding what is best, and I think I need to get used to the idea that I will not be 100% sure on the best option for DD no matter which grade placement she is in, at least in the shorter term.

    You have all made some fantastic points, and gave me a lot to think about.

    We did see a new optometrist last week, and there are some convergence issues and some visual processing issues that we are going to address. So hopefully that will help.

    We had a meeting with the school today, and I got to see some of her work and hear how her teachers think she is going, and they are happy that she is working at a year 1 level, and her writing is looking fantastic! She is still near the bottom of her class for maths and literacy, but they have good supports in place, and they are happy that she is making good progress. Unlike this time last year, she is not sinking under the work. Her academic self-esteem seems to be increasing too, which was a major concern last year.

    We also discussed some possible indicators of ADHD, that we will keep that in the back of our minds and revisit as the year goes on if needed. I was glad the school agreed that their are some indicators of ADHD, because as I mentioned above, I have been watching her and seeing what I was thinking where ADHD like traits, and its nice to have someone else to agree that they are seeing similar challenges.

    I do like her school, and they are very available for support and discussions.

    So I will try my best to relax, and support her with a few suggestions made by the school, and work on her vision and keep an eye on the attention issue.


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    I'm glad you've seen an optometrist, because vision issues are one of those things that can hold kids back who'd otherwise accel.

    However, if nothing changes quickly with attention to the vision issues, I would consider additional evaluation to make sure nothing else is being missed, and even more so when ADHD gets mentioned. There are other problems that can cause ADHD-like behavior -- the vision issue maybe, stealth dyslexia, or other processing difficulties or learning difficulties.

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