Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Grade skipping outcomes

DS11s tester recommended another grade skip at the time, which we eventually decided against. EF skills were a concern, which I imagine is more often the case for boys than for girls.

However, we knew that a gifted program within a college prep track was an option from 5th grade onwards, otherwise the decision would have been a lot harder. If there is a choice, I’d always choose to accelerate the curriculum rather than the child...

I have two kids with three skips (sort of) between them.

My daughter was happy about the skip up to the end of 5th grade, when she started noticing that the other kids in her class were "talking about things I don't understand yet." She would have been the youngest in her age-grade class, so her single skip was close to a double skip. She's in early high school now and is doing better, but is still aware of the age difference.

My eldest was double-skipped and entered a dual-enrollment program at 14. The kids in his class reacted to him like he was an oddity, and he didn't like that. He stayed in the program for an extra year. The one-year-ish difference from his classmates was much less of an issue. Now, he's finished a year of college and generally fits with the other students because his age is close enough to theirs that it's not a big deal. There's a student at the college who started at 15. He has to live at home and doesn't really fit in. IMO, college is about more than just studying, and taking initial steps on your own with peers is a big part of it.

In the early years, skips can be helpful. This is especially true when the kids are prepubescent and everyone is essentially the same in many ways. Things get different when kids get older.

This problem is very difficult, and it's complicated by lack of ability grouping in schools. Well, kids with learning problems are more likely (not guaranteed) to get work at an appropriate level via an IEP. Gifted kids tend to have more a challenge in that regard.

Overall, my advice is to be very cautious about more than a single skip. Your child will not die dead of moving a bit more slowly. Single-subject accelerations can help. When the child is older, s/he can look at dual enrollment programs and similar options, which let a very bright high-schooler stay with age peers while taking college classes. The program Tigerle mentioned also seems like a good option.

Our DD skipped mid 4th to 5th. . She was young for 4th grade so was almost 2 years younger than some of her new classmates. One of the Duke Tip team stated DD could pull off another skip but we chose not to as her sibling is only 1 year older, and that would have placed DD in the grade ahead of her sister. In 6th grade she and her sister took a fast track math class so by 7th they were in algebra.

DD continued to make all A’s although she struggled with EF issues due to ADHD (inattentive). We worked on that situation quite a bit. Socially, DD did much better in 7th when she found a group of snarky, quirky kids. This year, 8th, has been more of a struggle as we moved overseas where DD attends a small international private school. She hasn’t yet found good friends as it takes her a long time to develop relationships.

DD is still tiniest in the class but would be small even if not skipped. I used to fret about this, but what really does it matter for girls? I suppose for boys this would be more of a concern. We don’t have to worry about her obtaining a driver’s license or drinking at the same time as her grade mates because even the older kids won’t be doing this where we live.

Classwork is still easy for DD, and although she “studies” (glancing at a paper) with kids in class, she still receives all A’s. DD is taking Geometry at age 12 due to the fast track math class and the grade skip. Her other classes are 8th grade basics at this college prep school. We attempt to get her to “practice” studying, but it is hard to get her to understand that she will need good study habits someday. We are facing high school next year with both kids. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.


We did not experience this, but our DD is more a writer and artist than a math loving gifted kid.

My DS, who is currently in 9th grade, started kindergarten a year early and skipped 4th, putting him two years ahead. He's in a small school with multi-age classrooms, where this is not unusual, so it has not been a problem for him academically or socially. He's still at the top of his class and may skip another year in a subject that's in his area of strength. He's got close friends and tells me when the subject comes up that he cannot imagine being two years "behind" where he is. I've also had his teachers tell me that they never would have believed someone his age could have the social and emotional intelligence and maturity that he shows in his writing. Writing and languages have never been a problem for him.

I think it all depends on the kid and the setting. Knowing your kid and trusting them and your gut is everything.

True, these happen to be mathy/sciency Boys rather than artsy/literature-loving girls. I believe another poster talked about boys in her environment tending to skip earlier rather than later.

But this is one of my hypotheses after all: some factors appear to impact boys and girls differently - on average, or aggregate, of course there will always be anecdotes to 5e contrary.

Our son, 11 in February, is in 6th grade also. He skipped 4th. He did very well academically in 5th, scoring on state testing highest in the county in math and highest of the school's 5th grade in Science. He also scored "exceeding expectations" in LA.
Socially, early in this school year, he was bullied and we needed to remove him from that school and place him with Connections Academy. He's in 6th everything except for math, where he has been placed into 8th, Pre-Algebra.
He's scoring very well in this environment, as well. His LA is a high B and the math an A.
Social studies is the bane of his existence...but he's still pulling a low B.

So for us, skipping 4th academically has been no problem. Executive Function for him is, according to the psych eval we did, normal for his age...which puts him at a disadvantage in the higher grade. We're looking into ways to support him for next year when we plan to place him back into a B & M school in another district.

Socially, we were told, and agree, that he's normal for his age. But for him, his ADHD (inattentive type) sometimes causes him to become frustrated and when he is, he tears up. This has been interpreted as babyish behavior by some kids in his prior school and so made him a magnet for bullies.
We've been researching ADHD quite a lot, and working on strategies to help him, so we are optimistic for his coming school year success.

Had sone health issues that delayed my ability to contribute to this thread but the worst is now behind me - God willing.

We have one daughter now aged 13 who is about to complete 8th grade so that is the current ceiling on our experience thus far.

What we have found with our DYS and SET daughter is that unless a family has literally princely sums of money that there is no perfect solution and even being able to offer lessons from a modern day Aristotle as a personal tutor the child will still likely suffer in terms of social integration with age peers.

Our DD was miserable at school by second grade - she was so miserable that she became enraged over trivial things at home - really brittle. In desperation we had her evaluated and a whole grade skip right into fourth grade was arranged at the end of second grade.

What kept her ~sane was that I can mainly work from home and have been able to accelerate her Maths at her pace (well actually I got scared and slowed her down) so despite her pleading she did not start pre-Algebra until 4th grade - after school via AoPS. Maths is the easiest subject to accelerate in our experience.

Her 4th grade was awkward because we live in a tiny village so even with ka skip she had no real peers plus it seems that young girls can be very reluctant to except that a younger girl is better than them academically.

5th grade was happier and she had a couple of friends at school but the pace of school work bored her literally to tears but now we had 'baby CTY' and AoPS to keep her more stimulated in addition to some weekend G&T sessions offered by a local state college. She also needed to bring her EF up to grade level.

In sixth she encountered social issues because of her friends' puberty and the age difference became more apparent. The wheels finally coming off at the beginning of eighth grade with her former besties completely dropping her when their group merged with a another group and the alpha of that group took a dislike to our daughter. This was a very trying time for her and for us as parents as we are all empaths. Luckily she had CTY friends by then in nearby large cities but even so the prospect of sitting in the lunch room on her own was devastating for her. It all worked out well though in that she has a group of nerd boys to hang with and she is appears to now be more resilient and able to talk thing through with me. There were some horrible moments along the way that I still shudder about.

Our daughter will start HS going into pre-Calculus and a bio-medical 'academy' - we are hoping that larger pond of a regional HS will offer her more chance of meeting local peers.

In retrospect, I agree for the most part with Val - regarding the fact that puberty does impact things for skipped girls in our experience but this probably would be less of an issue for a girl who hits puberty earlier.

We have considered more than one skip in the past but we have no desire for our DD to go to college at even 17 let alone younger.

As someone said on this board before - when you have seen one high LOG kid all you have done is seen one high LOG kid - YMMV.

This would seem to be confirmed for my DD13, also finishing the 8th grade, who is as advanced physically as she is academically. Nobody has any reason to suspect she's younger unless she tells them.

You all are talking about the disadvantages of grade skipping and being physically small, but I see little talk about the disadvantages of not grade skipping. My older sister and I were both grade skipped. But then my parents moved to a new school district and that district claimed to have an etched in stone policy against grade skipping. My sister and I had to go back to our age grades. It did not feel like repeating a grade socially or anything. But suddenly, both of us who were very academically adept were stuck in with kids who had little interest in school. For me, personally, I felt awful. I wanted to learn. I could not relate to kids in my age grade who were so far behind me academically and intellectually. We tell people not to judge someone by their looks. But then, we withhold academics from someone who just doesn't "look" the part of an older grade, even if they are indeed there. I was miserable for the next three years. Finally, around 7th grade, things started to pick up. But honestly, I grew to hate school so much by then that I do not think I ever recovered.

You are right... other threads over time have discussed various PROs and CONs of grade skipping and of not grade-skipping... here is a roundup of acceleration discussions.

You are not alone in your unfortunate experience of negative results when a skip is withheld!

To help minimize the numbers of persons who suffer the lack of appropriate acceleration, the Acceleration Institute has conducted and presented research showing the generally positive results of a grade skip, especially when factors listed in the IAS are proactively considered/weighed in the decision-making. Two things may work against broader acceptance/adoption of acceleration:
1) Entrenched thinking of "peers" as being those of the same chronological age (rather than intellectual/academic peers)
2) Common Core has ushered in an era of extensive data collation enabling the evaluation/rating/ranking of schools and teachers based on achieving equal outcomes among their student populations. Closing achievement gaps to gain a positive evaluation/rating/ranking may often involve capping the growth of students at the top

For continuing growth and development, kids need:
1) appropriate academic challenge
2) true peers
For typical kids, these needs may be met in a general ed classroom, however for children with higher IQ/giftedness, these needs may not be met without intentional effort in providing advanced curriculum, and grouping for instruction with academic/intellectual peers.