Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Any reasons NOT to grade skip?

What does the school think, or the incoming teacher for the skip? The psychologist who tested my DD in pre-K recommended skipping K and entering 1st but the principal refused. He was very, very against acceleration for anyone (I think mostly he was afraid of opening the floodgates for skip-eager parents). The incoming 1st grade teacher went to bat to take DD but she was turned down also.

With my DD she would have done fine with one skip but would still be bored, honestly the curriculum advances quite slowly from year to year these days and in the early years there is so much focus on getting most of the kids up and running with literacy. DD's writing issues would have still have been an issue one year ahead, but maybe we would have had to deal with it head on a year earlier and have been further ahead by now (we've been up against resistance to acknowledging a problem because of her being so sidelined since K, also due to people thinking she just needs time to gain writing maturity...) Now the school philosophy has jumped suddenly from "wait and see" to going on and on about how behind she is!! If people had listened to me and her lowest subscores a few years ago maybe we'd be further ahead by now....but that's another issue.

We thought about skipping 5th next year and her entering 6th at a private school that starts in 6th and does academic acceleration, but they took one look at her processing speed scores, put her paperwork down and said "she'll never be able to handle AP Classes" then proceeded to talk about if they did accept her and the program was accelerated anyway, she'd be only age 15 for graduation (her birthday is late) and then WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH HER THEN? Anyway we decided not to go with them.

Now my DD is at the point where she would not agree to a skip, she is very into being with kids born the same year as her. She's in a private school where she learns ahead of the pack, struggles with writing, is so-so socially (but most of them are way over our socio-economic range and don't live near us so it's not a big deal) but they have enough extras to keep her motoring along, most days.

When she was accelerated in her voice program and with girls 2+ years older, she absolutely hated it. The tended to be more overly-groomed "sophisticated" types, and had no interest in even superficial interaction with DD. OTOH, DD's taking a tech class outside of school now and is with girls 3+ years older (she has special permission because she can handle it, is very quick to catch on and independent) and she doesn't mind because the girls tend to be quirkier/less socially "advanced" than the girls in the voice program, and will give her a chance and listen to her. But her true friends for social activities are only her age. She always gets along very well with boys as friends and they talk to her and are just a little bit afraid of her - though a strong one will rise out of the pack sometimes and they'll have intellectual sparring, which DD thinks is just great. I suspect she will always be like that.

As the others said there are always nay-sayers and hindsight is 20/20, that's for anything you do in life for yourself or your kids.

This is one I heard last week that I had not considered before.

Our state has a program that allows high schoolers to take college classes their last two years of high school and the state covers the tuition.

http://www.k12.wa.us/SecondaryEducation/CareerCollegeReadiness/RunningStart.aspx

A mom I was talking to mentioned that it works best if the student can drive themselves.

Re: KJP's link, that's the sort of thing I would like to be on the look out for my DD for the last couple of years of HS, or part classes and part internship.

Being slightly facetious here, but one reason not to grade skip is, if it goes too well, you might need to do another one.

My daughter skipped 2nd and was in such a wonderful school, that by the end of 5th, she had easily worked well ahead of her grade peers. She ended up skipping 6th (the first year of middle school here) and into 7th. She'd probably be a candidate to do it again before graduation, but middle school subject acceleration looks like it will feed nicely into high school where there are a ton of different (and AP) class options to keep her occupied.

I would say sports have been a little bit of an issue. Even being a little big for her age leaves her small for her grade, which can be a big deal on swim team. Socially, she is a little out of step, not being into make-up and who is dating whom. But, all in all, I'd be in favor of her doing the accelerations again.

If you had to write up a To-Skip vs. Not-to-Skip list, what would be on that list? For my DS7, had he gone to 1st grade, he would have been absolutely miserable. He skipped to 2nd and it still wasn't enough (his IQ places him at the 99.97 percentile, if those numbers can be trusted at this age). Rather than try to move him up another grade, which maturity-wise he could definitely handle (he's good about playing, interacting with kids older and younger than him), I decided to homeschool for the remainder of the year.

But what will happen if you don't skip? For me, I suspected my son would lose his excitement for learning, become agitated at the lack of challenge and as his violin teacher later observed, start to lose his "spark," become lazy, sloppy... I could go on.

This eventually happened despite the skip, which is why I withdrew him, but I think a skip coupled with appropriate subject-area challenges might have saved the day. Who knows? But since I began reading this board, I've seen a lot of conversations about the "least-worst fit" (hope I'm labeling that right).

I think it's just as important to think about what will happen if you don't skip, just as much as whether it'll work for social reasons, or academic competitions.

Good luck!

I am writing as an adult who was accelerated twice. My experience is that the social and developmental issues are very real, and have effects for decades into a child's future. We don't usually know who will be a Thomas Edison or an Albert Einstein, but in general it is helpful to a young person to have the ability to manage their own environment and to have adequate social skills vis-a-via their particular family and social situation. We have to take a careful look at what constitutes a successful adult life, and be sure that our children have the opportunity to grow in those [soft] skills through their day-to-day experiences.

Middle school presents a lot of challenges regarding organization and self-reliance. Maturity (years) usually helps.

Giving a child the chance to have interact with age-mate peers who are on an advanced level in one or two areas, perhaps on the outside (specialized vacation camps, local library or arts center) can meet the need for intellectual stimulation and like-minded friends.

The struggle to socially and developmentally keep up with older classmates eventually erodes the healthy kind of self-esteem that should lead to happy adulthood. It is hard to think about it now, but you don't want you kids to get involved with a disenfranchised crowd.

NYC native

My sister and I both skipped grades and we have very different feelings about it. I think skipping K or 1st would be ideal, but skipping in middle school was very difficult for my sister who was very social. Her teen years years were very hard on her and she struggled with an eating disorder. Now, I am not blaming skipping for all of her problems, but I think she had a lot of social pressure because she was young, small, and insecure with an ill-timed grade skip. She ended up trading academic boredom for a host of social problems my parents did not predict.

I think skipping a grade in early elementary would be totally different (and was for me). However, you have to think ahead. The reality is when you are academically ahead of your peers more than one grade level, skipping one grade will not be enough. Even multiple grade skips didn't solve any real academic issues for me. I am not resentful about grade skipping like my sister is, but my DD5 is homeschooled because of my own experience was less than ideal.

I know it's a hard decision. There are so many factors you just can not predict or control (like peers, teachers, competitions, etc). I think all you can do is consider your own child's temperament and needs. Personally,I would focus on the overall happiness of my child this year and try not to worry about all the "what ifs" that might come to pass. You have to do what you feel is right for your situation.

A lot to think about. We had our big meeting with the psychologist and my child is gifted across the board in all categories of the WISC-IV. BUT in taking four subtests of the WIAT-III...word reading, reading comp and math reasoning all reflect ability...while the numerical operations score is average. Huh? So I have a wonderful yet bored and frustrated child with something that's out of sync. Humph. What to do, what to do...