Pregnancy
Discussion Title: Repeat first grade???
Created by: mom2julesj...
Created on: Wed, 05/09/2007 - 3:22pm.
Created by: mom2julesj...
Created on: Wed, 05/09/2007 - 3:22pm.
Hi,
Hopefully, someone can give me some feedback.
My son, Jacob, is in the first grade. He will be 7 on August 15, so he's one of the youngest in his class. He has been struggling all year with reading, which often affects other subjects. He goes for special reading help with the learning specialist and has made some very slow progress. He is reading at like a "primer" level and to me, is starting to progress forward to the next level very soon.
His teacher really feels that he should be held back in first grade. She says he has some maturity issues that really show. She constantly has to keep him on track and keep him working at the tasks. I asked her if she felt it was an attention problem. She feels it is not because he does not have that "spacey" look when not being attentive. She does not think he's exhibiting symptoms of like ADD. She thinks it's a maturity problem and that he might be just shutting off the lesson because he feels overwhelmed by it. I ask him about school and he says it's easy....his work is often rushed. When he doesn't feel like it..he just writes "mumble-jumble".
I don't know what to do. Part of me feels he needs to stay back another year....part of me says that would hurt him too much.
Any ideas?
Jeanne
mom-Jacob 6 and Julia 9
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Replied: 7/22/2009 9:40am.
My son just turned 6 on march 8th and is starting first grade in sept 09. Is that the age of your first graders in your town, 7 and above?
Replied: 7/22/2009 4:51pm.
Most kids here turn 6 in Kindergarten, turn 7 in First Grade. The moms that have experience in education seem to be the ones that are most likely to keep their sons out of Kindergarten for an extra year, so there are at least a few boys who turn 8 in first grade.
Replied: 8/11/2009 7:41pm.
This thread is helping me think thru our situation. I have a very tall girl who just turned seven the end of July. She had average grades thru first grade last year, has moderate ADD. So, young but very tall, ADD, average grades. Our debate is whether to keep her at the private school and move her on to second grade or pull her out and place her in our public school (excellent, highly rated public school) and have her repeat first grade. This is one of the most difficult situations. I hear so much about boys, but wonder and would love to hear more from parents of girls. Any thoughts?
Replied: 8/12/2009 12:49am.
Threegirls,
From my experience very few girls repeat a grade. I'm not quite sure why you are considering holding back your daughter if she is keeping average grades and not behind. Girls do tend to mature quicker and from my experience most girls are definitely more mature throughout elem. school.
Is she on meds for ADD? If so, for how long has she been on them? Some kids make remarkable growth once they are put on the correct dosage of ADD meds for their ADD.
Why were you considering changing her schools? Do you have a concern about your daughter having a learning disability?
My son has been the youngest in his class since he started school, but he is at the top of his class as well and he's ADD and NLD. Just because they are young it doesn't mean they should be held back.
Hope this info. helps.
Only
Replied: 9/1/2009 9:15am.
Threegirls,
Does your daughter have an IEP? And is the private school a spec ed school? If so, it may be hard to hold her back. My son's classified in special ed, and b/c of the No Child Left Behind Act, we were told holding our son back wld be going against spec ed law. Something to look into.
Replied: 10/6/2009 4:59pm.
I'm going to comment as someone who has coordinated graduate programs in special education and reading disabilities for the City University of New York, who has edited academic journals in both areas, who has published more than 100 articles in these areas, who has consulted to many school districts and families about reading disabilities, and who is the brother and son of family members who had severe reading problems (and dropped out of school).
The argument for retaining struggling learners in kindergarten and first grade is very simple: They won't be able to handle the work in the new grade and they'll fall further behind. Keeping them back gives them a chance to catch up.
The problem is simple: retention rarely works. Most often, it harms children, even in kindergarten and first grade. Here's a summary of the research:
“The large majority of all [research] studies do not find any positive results from grade retention. In most cases, students’ achievement and self-esteem are shown to drop after retention. Retained students are more likely to drop out of school.” (Holmes & Saturday, Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 2000).
So, what should a parent do?
Get the evaluations your child needs. This will help you identify what’s currently causing his problems. Then seek the services he needs to overcome the problems. Use the law to do both.
Send the school a written request for a full set of evaluations in all areas of potential difficulty. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) the school is required to evaluate children suspected of having a disability. In reading, the most frequent area involved in retention, the evaluations should address, at a minimum, word recognition, decoding, writing, language, auditory processing, and the child's ability to set goals, attend, concentrate, remember, and adjust his actions to overcome unexpected problems (this is called self-regulation). It should involve diagnostic teaching. After the evaluations are completed and you understand them, work with the school to develop and monitor a program that continues to meet your child's needs and continues to produce meaningful progress.
How to do this is difficult. It might create conflict with the school. You can get a great deal of free information on what to do and how to resolve conflict from www.reading2008.com and www.reading2008.com/blog. You can also ask your librarian to download a free copy of my article, My Child Can't Read: What Should I Do? It's available from EBSCO, unjobs.org/authors/howard-margolis, and Learning Disabilities Worldwide (www.ldam.org/pdf/journal/2005/09-05_read.pdf).
Good luck,
Howard Margolis, Ed.D.
Replied: 10/6/2009 6:10pm.
Thanks, Dr. Margolis, for an informative post. Do you know of any research about giving students (particularly boys) a late start in Kindergarten?
Replied: 10/9/2009 10:31am.
I wrote a post in response to your question and that of a few other parents. Below is the start of the post.The blog is www.reading2008.com/blog. Good luck.
My son has learning disabilities. Should I delay kindergarten for a year?
A parent recently asked me if she should delay registering her son for kindergarten. She thought he had learning problems that would create problems in kindergarten. My response was that the research, though insufficient and contradictory, didn’t support delay. Here’s a sample of the research findings: