Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Delaying Kindergarten

I wouldn't hold back a child unless I seriously thought that child had learning difficulties, and I 100% definitely would not hold back a child who's likely gifted. There's a lot of recent research that suggests it's better in the long run to be young for grade, though there are plenty of people clinging to the old "common sense wisdom" of holding back.

My DS was born in October and will be almost 6 when he's "supposed" to go to Kindergarten next year. I have been trying all year to figure out how I can get the school to admit him to 1st instead. He will totally be the most immature 1st grader in the short run, but in the long run I think it would be worse to have him sitting around bored. Because he WILL entertain himself and nobody wants him to be having to make his own entertainment. (After having had to try to differentiate for DD9 all this year, her teacher is now all on board with this idea, too.)

As far as preschool, I will say that both my children started preschool at the age of 22 months, attending a 4-hours-per-week program through Early Intervention. (DD qualified for EI services, but I enrolled DS as a community peer simply because I loved the program.) They both attended other preschool programs after aging out of the EI preschool (2.5 years of part-day Montessori for DD; 1.5 years of full-time daycare center/preschool for DS followed by 1 year of part-day Montessori). They both love preschool.

We had the opportunity at age 5 for my son to either enroll in a second year of preschool or enroll in Kindergarten. We opted for another year of preschool based on the notion that he really loved his preschool and, as a result, thrived and blossomed tremendously the second year.

Of course, we have since discovered that he is HG... so we have it a bit harder for ourselves now, as he is 6 in Kindergarten this year and definitely lacking challenge. What's worse is that the school does not want to accelerate him because he is supposedly "not the brightest kid in the classroom" (according to his teacher).

I don't regret our decision for a second year of pre-school, though, even knowing what I know now. So I think it just depends on the kid and the pre-school. We didn't want to change a good thing.

Schools don't want to accelerate so being younger is as close as you will get to a grade skip.

National Association of School Psychs white paper on retention:

http://www.nasponline.org/about_nasp/positionpapers/whitepaper_graderetentionandsocialpromotion.pdf

Executive summary: data supports a small positive effect in the short term, and a negligible-to-non-existent effect long-term, with conflicting evidence for slight positive or slight negative effects on achievement and social-emotional functioning. The main anticipated negative outcome is increased risk of dropout.

The vast majority of the research is on low- and typically-performing students.

My first thoughts are dad wants to hold his child back, a child who is probably not only ready for K but probably well ahead of game, so his child can be bigger for sports. Football? Basketball? These are organized usually by grade and not age...that is my initial thought. Don't hold your kids back. Let them plow ahead on their own and thrive.

Having gifted kids who are young for grade is actually a great boon. Combined with a high achieving school system (the kind where other parents redshirt!) it means that there is a chance you can make things work in elementary until gifted programming or other meaningful acceleration options which do not depend on grade skips, like accelerated classes in middle school, roll around. With a regular or old for grade kid, chances are much higher that it's grade skip or go nuts, and in some school systems (and with some kids) a grade skip is simply not a feasible option - and even a grade skip that is supported by the school and works well for the child socially simply means the child is placed with regular peers a year older, not with true intellectual peers the way a gifted program (hopefully) works.
Just like PPs have said, forget the research, it was performed with regular and low performing kids for whom the additional year might give a much needed boost from the lower performing to the higher performing cohort in the classroom. Kids who are already beyond the curriculum do not need to be boosted even further out. It's making sure these kids are younger to make the classroom a better fit that works, and the research on accelerating gifted kids show that for them, accelerating is very beneficial.

redshirting is all the rage in los angeles... and at mirman there is a range of 18-22 months between the kids. i know that most if not all private schools here want them older in K, not younger... even if you are beyond what they are teaching. i think it's more a behavior issue than anything. we have friends who's son was 5 on the 2nd of october and every school asked them to apply the next year as they felt he was too young for the class. everything here is older. my dd has a birthday at the end of feb. and she is one of the youngest in her class. they started turning 6 in her kinder. right in the beginning of school. even though mirman's kinder. teaches 1st grade material, i would say about 1/2 already had a public kinder before they got to mirman. weird right? i say, whatever is the norm where you are, just go with the flow.

DS7 (PG), is a late October birthday with a Sept. 1st school cutoff. Like someone said, all subjects are still way too easy for him even being accelerated a year, so it is not helping much. The important thing is if the school is willing to subject accelerate. Ours is which is the only way it is working for him in school.

BUT , another thing you might want to think about is that highly gifted children usually have a more advanced way of thinking about everything. My son complains that he feels so much older than the kids in his class even though he is a good year younger than a lot of them. There is not much mental interaction with his friends, he does like the playing on the playground though. But this is pretty much the only thing he has in common with the kids in class. I can't even imagine what it would be like if you were in the class he is supposed to be in.

Your older son is highly gifted, chances are you're younger will be in that range as well. I would definitely go ahead and start him and not hold back. It will be easy to keep up with the academics and he will probably feel more like he is with kids who are somewhat peers to him.

We have done the same thing with our 5 year old son. He is even younger, a late November birthday. Academics, especially math is still way too easy. And I can tell that the maturity level is not a match either. He is in a young class though. About four of the children are May /June birthdays. I really don't think it is going to be a good match for your son if you hold him back. Not on any level.

My son complains that he feels so much older than the kids in his class even though he is a good year younger than a lot of them.

This.


This is going to be true for a long, long, long time with a HG+ child.

Mine is still living this as a 15yo college freshman, fwiw.

Here's another perspective. Think hard about why he wants to red shirt him. Our son is 4 and likely HG+. We are skipping preschool altogether. He can read. He is happy doing 2nd grade math. Our son has excellent social skills with peers (older kids and adults he respects). He can tolerate adults he doesn't respect in limited doses for a limited time period (I.e. 2 hours, not 6). His coping skills get better every month as he matures.

That being said, he is extremely active and doesn't tolerate forced boredom well. I think sending our son to school at this age would leave him with a negative impression of school we'd never shake.

We are taking it year by year, but with his learning curve, we are thinking we'll probably homeschool. There is an excellent and welcoming homeschooling community here that has provided a wonderful multi-age set of peers for socialization. I have no doubt he's thriving at home in a way that he wouldn't be able to in school at this stage. Your mileage may vary, but keep in mind grade is just a number until you put him in the school system.