If they look, talk & walk like, and are otherwise indistinguishable from, older peers at the time acceleration is considered, it’s likely to work out. My eldest started long day care at six weeks of age, in a room with children up to two years of age. By the time she was three, she was globally identical to the 4-5 year olds who were about to start school and visibly more advanced than those who had only then recently turned 4 (she didn’t come across as a precocious 3 yr old, but rather as an above average 5 yr old - strangers everywhere would strike up conversations with her about whether she was excited to start school and she’d tell them she was only three, although she did end up starting because I thought it seemed a foregone conclusion to everyone else). The child care centre assessed her as school ready but because she was so much younger than the school start cut off age, she did have to undergo formal testing by an education psychologist.
She sailed through school and I still remember the high school principal’s shock when, at the end of eighth grade he congratulated us on raising ‘such an incredibly mature 14 year old’, we told him she was 12. She reached the various stages of puberty at the same time as her classmates and she started dating a classmate (a fine & very reliable young man who is still her BF) just before her 15th birthday and he drove her around as soon as he got his license, so none of these social considerations were ever an issue.
My youngest would have been in the middle of the age range if she had started in her correct year, but I noticed that as a three year old at her dance school concert, she absolutely towered over all her age peers (the next tallest wasn’t even up to her shoulder) and her motor control was demonstrably more advanced. Since the principal of the primary school was already familiar with her siblings, he was quite open to the idea of early entry but suggested she attend the pre-kindergarten preparation sessions. I couldn’t take time off work, so my best friend took my daughter. Reportedly, the principal watched for but could not identify my daughter amongst this group, so that became the litmus test for early entry.
Neither of my girls have had any issues whatsoever due to being younger than their classmates and acceleration has been successful for them but..
Serendipitously, DS has not been grade accelerated. Whilst intellectually & physically more capable than his sisters, he wasn’t socially ready to start a year early (noting that his birthday would have made it almost a double promotion if he had). By the end of kindergarten, it became clear that he was very far ahead of the curriculum and as I’ve posted in other threads, he was pretty much given free rein to direct his own learning as long as he wasn’t disruptive in class. This has afforded him the opportunity to reach a ‘summit view’ of class activities. He hasn’t been led through a fairly narrow school curriculum. He has explored the terrain himself, looked at topics from various angles, been the sole architect of his internal model of reality and formed and tested his own hypotheses. In many of his reports, his primary & high school teachers have commented, in some form or other, that they have learned from him. I doubt that they would make such comments lightly and his sisters, successful as they’ve been, with the eldest graduating high school as dux, have never received such comments on their reports.
He happens to also be a great all rounder, excelling in sports, music, chess and other areas and has a humble, friendly and easy going demeanour, so he enjoys great popularity though he has never actively sought it. He is undoubtedly an asset to the school. Therefore, whilst acceleration has certainly been successful for our family, radical subject acceleration whilst remaining with age peers has been an even better experience. I hope that high school won’t become ‘the best years of his life’, but it’s certainly been a terrific experience so far and worth not rushing through.
ETA: The benefits of not whole grade accelerating DS were only clear after my youngest had already started school. Even in hindsight, I honestly don’t know if earlier realisation would have changed our decisions. Each child has to be considered individually. My post is to feed back that more than one path can potentially be successful if progress is monitored.
FWIW, each of my children have fed back that they have been and are very happy and would not have wished for a different experience.
Last edited by Eagle Mum; 07/27/20 06:04 AM.
