I have to say, I have not heard this argument against grade-skipping yet and don't understand it--is that idea that a particular individual might have too much development, or not enough, or either depending on the circumstances?
The gist of the argument is that DD might possibly feel socially inadequate and/or be made fun of later on when her peers start developing breasts and she isn't.
My impression from my own time in school many years ago is that there is a lot of variation in said development between different individuals (both in timing and end results) so that I can't imagine anyone would believe this should be a reason for or against grade-skipping on its own.
As an alternative to laughing in her face, I quite politely and straight-facedly pointed this out to her... breast development happens at a wide range of ages, DD could be a very early or very late developer, and in any case planning for it is a waste of time. It was a very effective argument, but as we've come to discover, very effective arguments don't matter. These people have made up their minds before the conversation even begins, and the entire purpose of the meeting is to placate us.
Both sides failed. We didn't convince them, and they didn't placate us.
Perhaps the coordinator was using this as shorthand for "there are developmental issues that affect social interaction that might make grade-skipping a bad idea," or maybe (assuming from your nickname that you are a man) she was trying to embarrass you into shutting up by mentioning your daughter's development--although I would hate to think that of anyone at any school.
My sense was that she was offering it as one of a number of potential social issues, and obviously she wasn't doing a good job with her previous arguments if she ended up falling back to this position.
If she was trying to make me stop talking, she failed. I was the only male in the room, and it didn't make me blush or shy away in the slightest. Anyway, DW was there to take up the torch on that argument if I didn't. I did a better job of hiding my emotional reaction to this line of discussion... DW was quite audibly and visibly taken aback.
The sad thing is that this woman is admittedly the mother of a high school-aged gifted underachiever, and she quite agreed that the situation my DD is currently facing is how the road to gifted underachievement begins.
