Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Advice needed... profoundly gifted 1st grader

Whole-grade acceleration is supported by research.

On the other hand this may be cause for considering multiple accelerations paced appropriately to the individual child, throughout the school years. I am familiar with acceleration up to three grade-levels with additional coursework and projects in areas of interest sought out and successfully completed independently by that child. (An acceleration of 3 grade levels alone did not provide enough intellectual stimulation for that child.)

THIS.

If the school is suggesting it, that tends to mean that the child is probably EG/PG.

I know that it was NOT in my best interests to remain with agemates-- I was friendless my last three years in K-12, and this had profound consequences later in life. It was also possible for me to pass all of my AP/college prep coursework while having a 30%+ absenteeism rate, and I was plenty clever enough to make sure that my mom never KNEW that I was skipping school that much. Oh, and when I was there I wasn't... all there, if that makes sense. Yeah, being impaired definitely made things better in those (seemingly) remedial classes, that's for sure.

^ just wanted to drive Deacongirl's point home.


Looking back, (I have a PG DD14) I really don't think that we COULD have kept DD grouped with agemates. Even the most able of them (and they are her friends) tend to be years away from her academic interests and abilities.

What I will say, though, is that with an accelerated student, it is very important to LET that child be his/her chronological age OUTSIDE of school. Seek out mixed age groups, and let him/her gravitate where s/he will. The upshot is that my DD doesn't regard AGE as a qualification for friendships.

She's friends with people based upon shared interests and values, and upon the ability to enjoy one another's company.

Most of her classmates are either 18 or will be turning 18 soon. They drive-- though not all of them do. She doesn't. This really doesn't bother her.

The one major issue that has cropped up in having a precocious high school senior is that she probably isn't ready to "go off" to college. She WILL be living with a parent for that transition at 15yo. But we didn't limit her to the local college. She chose that on her own, on the basis of the connections she has in the community, and on the strength of one of the specialty programs at the institution, plus the fact that, for undergrad, it probably isn't THAT critical where you go. It'll be more or less free for her to attend undergrad. Sensible, right?

Anyway, I think that the only way that we could have avoided skips (we've done 3) is to have homeschooled using something really peculiar. None of us had it in us, honestly. One thing that has made the age less important is that we're with a virtual school-- so DD doesn't spend ALL of her time immersed in an "older" kid-culture.

I agree that for the most part "in-class differentiation" simply doesn't work. I wish that it did.




This is what we've done with our DD. She still finds the graduation requirements for HS to be utterly inane, but she has a LOT of other things in her life that she enjoys.

It makes me very sad that school is generally something that she sees as a pain in the rear end, and something that most frequently gets in the way of learning, rather than facilitating it...

but she's had a lot of OTHER enriching things in her life, and so we're minimizing the relative impact of that setting.

I don't actually think that most school can fit PG kids-- not even with regular radical accelerations in the picture. We didn't understand that fully either. What I wish we had done:

Gr 1-2 DD4-5 (homeschool)
Gr 3 DD6 (virtual school)
Gr4 (GT) DD7
Gr5 (GT) DD8
Gr 6+7 (GT) DD9
(Up to this point, this IS more or less what we did-- we just didn't formalize the last acceleration until the end of 9th grade)
Gr 8 (GT) DD10
Gr 9 + DD11
Gr 10 + dual enrollment DD12
Gr11 + dual enrollment DD13-- graduation.

The last couple of years have been really bad as far as fit goes. Visiting college campuses (and working on one over the summer in a research internship) has made the ill fit all the more apparent to my DD. She's SO done with this. She is in dual enrollment and AP course work. It's not enough. The ONLY classes that even feel "real" to her are things like AP physics and dual enrollment English composition. They aren't hard, either-- just closer to what she needs.

I did not want to have a 14yo high school graduate. No way. If anyone had asked me 14 years ago what I wanted for my DD, I would have ticked "normal" as the trajectory. I wanted to have my career, have my DD go to a public school like every other kid, etc. That's not the hand that she was dealt, and it's therefore not the one that we got, either.

Sending you a pm

I totally agree and find the evidence in favor of acceleration very convincing. I was trying to see it from the OPs point of view. Because she is reluctant to do a single skip I think multiple skips are not on the table...but a single skip with additional subject acceleration might meet the child's needs.

A lot depends on the child's temperment. That's one reason the IAS is so useful.

It's easy for those of us who have done accelerations to look at "PG" and think that it's impossible to keep them in a classroom with neurotypical agemates, but if the child has the right disposition that may not be true.

ha - i came here to say just that. my kiddo is nowhere close to PG, but she still can't be in a class with agemates without falling into a severe depression. she needed a triple+ skip this year AND homeschooling - she's just too much of a raging perfectionist/delightful weirdo to be in class with other 5 year olds. i hope this will change as she becomes more sure of who she is and what she likes - but, like everyone else, we're just taking it one year at a time.

i think it's awesome if a PG kid can enjoy school with age-mates AND still be him/herself without the usual problems. for me, the deciding factor was simply whether or not my kid was actually thriving - and that included a whole range of criteria. mommajay, it sounds like your girl is pretty happy with her friends right now - and if you (and the school) can meet her intellectual needs in other ways, maybe that's just fine. your kid might want more down the line, and i'm sure you'll cross those bridges when you come to them!

all the best!

You are going to get tons of advice telling you to skip. Above all else, I think you need to trust your own mommy gut instinct and your DD's judgment/preference.

In my opinion, it is okay to not grade-skip your DD. While I am not inclined to share horror stories, there have been several double-grade skips in my family and with hindsight (college & beyond), I can honestly say that the landscape changes over time and the ledger of advantages/disadvantages shifts. Consequences are not always forseeable and individual experiences will vary.

My DS10 is a DYS and in fifth grade. A number of school personnel had mentioned grade skipping, but that wasn't what I wanted for my DS and also not what he wanted for himself. Back in 1st grade, he read 5th grade fiction independently (higher non-fiction as is typcial). As for math, I didn't bother assessing him in 1st grade but he tested fine with 5th grade math as a second grader when we underwent the process of subject acceleration in math. DS was accelerated to 4th grade level math in 2nd grade and then accelerated to Pre-algebra in 4th grade and is currently studying Algebra through an online course with a one-day a week teacher provided by the school district. From 1st through 4th grade, he was in the gifted classes, which use materials at least one grade above as well as novels to supplement the standard textbooks. His 1st grade teacher had bookcases full of 3rd/4th grade books due to previously teaching 3rd grade. DS probably read through her whole collection due to finishing his work early.

This has worked for my DS so far. He is well-adjusted with no emotional or behavior issues. However, it is important to note that neither DS nor I limit or defer learning to school. He is an avid reader and gets most of his reading material through the public library or purchase. While he uses the school library, its selections are clearly limited. The internet has been a great source of learning as well and he has had his own laptop for a couple of years. Many families have successfully avoided skipping also by focusing time/mental energy on the arts, music, chess, sports, etc.

Please note that I am not advising you not to skip. Only you and your DD can make the best decision for yourselves. However, you also should not feel pressured to skip.

I think it's really important that the reason for a skip (or not) boil down to what best serves the CHILD in question.

NOT what best serves:

the school
parents
neighbors
extended family
friends with more NT children...

Too often those other things get rolled into this decision and wind up being inappropriate pressures on parents. Being aware of where some of that is coming from is important here, I think.

Or perhaps the OP's reluctance to skip is indicating a correct reading of the child, and multiple skips will never be on the table. To reiterate and agree, I think a valid reason for rejecting a single skip can be that it wouldn't significantly help any problem - especially if it also creates problems of its own. This was a factor for DS: in his strength areas, he was *so* far ahead that one year's skip wasn't even going to scratch the surface, while at the same time, he'd have suffered from age-inappropriate expectations in areas where he was age-typical (chiefly handwriting). If, when he was six, he'd (somehow, with some set of accommodations for those areas) been skipped to a level where he'd have stretched intellectually without needing special treatment, he'd have finished this school by now or be about to this year, and then we'd be totally stuck - none of the senior schools that we're looking at now would in any way be an appropriate environment for DS9, and I don't see that any new possibilities would have opened up.

My son needed to skip K and go right into 1st. But that wasn't going to happen. K was a waste but he was happy enough. They did end up making him a reading group of one (reading chapter books...not beginning chapter books but real 3-5th grade chapter books) plus they had additional reading enrichment time with another teacher with a group of advanced reader pulled from all the K classes. All in all though it was way too easy for him.

So we took advantage of a school of choice Dual Language program 1/2 day English 1/2 day Spanish for first grade. The English side was still too easy and I am not thinking there was much differentiation. They didn't think he was as advanced as I did. Spanish portion of the day kept him learning and challenged and even frustrated at times (which was good for him).

Second grade two gems of teachers (one Spanish, one English) and boy did they get him (they were also gifted certified) and at the end of the first 9 weeks were suggesting a skip to third. Well no way was I going to skip him out of this lovely setting. They continued to differentiate (really, not just lip service) and he thrived. Inside the classroom he subject accelerated math. She would get the class working on a warm up exercise, show my son what he was going to do that day...took 3 minutes, and then he worked independently while she taught the rest of the class. Loved 2nd grade. Qualified for gifted.

Started out this year in 3rd. Just skipped him to 4th a couple of weeks ago. He is happy with the skip so far. He is having to work on his writing (which is probably just fine for third grade but a bit lacking for a 4th grader about to be tested in writing). Everything else he feels is at a just right level. For now.

I assume he will need another skip at some point (only because people keep telling me that). We probably will homeschool middle school (maybe allowing for another skip then if he needs it).

ETA...I guess we take it one year at a time...and if we feel he is too young at any point, there is a way to slow it down, homeschool a year in high school where he doesn't earn any "credits" but does self directed project based learning, volunteer or community service and other community learning opportunities, travel, etc. But I can't worry about how old he will be in the 11th or 12th grade now when he is 8. I have to make sure his education is just right fit for him now.