Tammy-
The research has been done, and the large majority of kids who were skipped speak positively about it.
But not all of us! I skipped first and, while it was not the worst thing that could have happened to me, I did not like it. I had good friends who I was separated from; I had trouble making friends in my new grade; I was not any more challenged academically in my new grade than my old one, but the top kids I displaced in the new grade resented me; I was going to go through puberty late anyway and the extra year behind put me way out of synch with my classmates; My siblings resented that I was a grade closer to them. I remember feeling like I had "fit" in my old grade and I never felt like was able to totally connect with the new class. Don't get me wrong; I was not miserable and I did have friends; I participated in clubs and other activities and realize now that I was pretty well-liked on the whole. I just remember thinking--up until college where I felt like I got a fresh start--that I would have preferred that it hadn't happened. Of course, we have no way of knowing how things would have turned out if I hadn't skipped--maybe things would have gone downhill after first grade without the skip. We'll never know.
I am not angry or resentful and I know that everyone involved meant well. But I just don't have good feelings about skipping and I am working hard to make sure that DS doesn't have to get skipped. We are doing lots of subject acceleration and after-schooling. When he was tentatively offered a skip this year, he said, "no way; I like my class." We haven't brought it up again and he seems very happy with the arrangements we have made for him.
