Promotion or Retention?

All I know is where we live there is this idea that you shouldn’t hold kids back. Our son has been in sped for 4 yrs. and is 9 and reading at 2nd grade level.

We really wonder if we had kept him back in first grade since he was behind to start if it would have helped.

Your really need to know if it would bother your child to keep him back. It is your child and noone anywhere cares more than you do or knows him better.

In either case, promotion or retention, you may want to consider tutoring this summer so that he does not forget what he has learned.

One thing I would take a look at is his maturity. Does he seem emotionally ready to take on the demands of 2nd grade? How is he doing socially? How is his behavior in comparision to that of his peers?

I sent my son to kindergarten at age 5 because he seemed academically ready. He was. However he was and continues to be immature for his age. I think he would be better off today if he waited another year before starting kindergarten.

Best of luck.

LJ

The statistics on retention aren’t very good, probably because retaining a child doesn’t necessary address the underlying issues. You sound like you have a handle on those, however. More typical is the case like my friend who retained her first grader. He still wasn’t doing that well the second time round and now is being tested for LD.

One big issue is how your son feels about it. We thought of retaining our second grade son this year. He was even going to go to a different school so there wouldn’t be the stigma of repeating a grade. We got tired of the struggle to catch up and thought it would give us all some breathing room. Socially, my son did fine with second graders but was very flexible socially. He, however, was totally opposed to it. I think he thought it was a slap in the face after all his hard work. So we dropped the whole idea.

Beth

We thought of retaining of second grader this year. We were going to switch schools so there wouldn’t be the social issue but he was adamI don’t know if there are right answers to this one

I would get a handle on how the kid feels about it. If your gut instincts tell you he is just a better fit a year “back,” though, then arbitrary age assignments would be a foolish reason to keep him from learning in an environment that suits him — especially if he’s a kid that tends to learn by rote, but gets better comprehension and understanding if he spends more time with what he’s learning.

The other huge factor is who his teacher will be. If he’d be with the same teacher and it’s working — buy another good year!!! Especially with NVLD kids, that sometimes intangible “teacher chemistry” can make or break a kid. There are an awful lot of well-meaning teachers who can’t see past a verbally bright kid to his struggles (or are very uncomfortable with what they see as “not trying” or “weird.”)

It would be holding him back if he’s going to be bored repeating things he knows. Ask this teacher specifically what reasons were given for not retaining kids — there are lots of good ones. But don’t let statistics about kids in general sway you — your kid is not a kid in general. So if the reasons don’t connect with your kid and your situation — then they don’t apply to your situation. Consider what kinds of things are important to his self-esteem — what things bother him, and what things don’t.

It’s interesting that his teacher’s mind was so quickly unsettled by one seminar. It must have been a powerful seminar.

How old are your son’s classmates? Where does his 7th birthday in June place him in his class? Is he one of the older, younger or in the middle kids in his grade? Is he very tall or not so tall?

Those are the easy kinds of questions to answer. As to others, I like to err on the side of caution. If anyone has a thought that this might help your son, I’d seriously consider it. Holding a child back in the 1st grade really isn’t holding a child back. It’s more like readjusting and the kind of readjustment it is can offer great benefits to a child and can’t be done easily later on.

Good luck.

My father and I have almost the same birthday, which places us at the cut-off for grades in school.

I think that my father was / is ADD. At any rate, he was the youngest kid in school. When you’re 5 or 6, one year makes a huge difference in size, learning, maturity. He always struggled and didn’t enjoy learning until much later in life.

My parents (my mother is a SPED teacher) did not want the same thing to happen to me and let me go to school a year later. I was always the oldest and tallest kid in the class, but there was never any struggling. If I were LD, I think that I would have had the confidence (from size, maturity, one more year at life) to believe that the extra effort at learning would be worth it. I eventually made up the lost year and really enjoyed learning. If I were LD, perhaps this wouldn’t be so rosy, but I still think that it’s better to be over-ready than under-ready for the next learning hurdle.

Since it’s so early in school, why not consider delaying second grade for a year? If it works, your kid will likely flourish. If not, I hope that the next grade goes better than this one.

Thank you all so much for your input. I really appreciate it. If you come up with anything else, let me know! Dawn

Dawn,
You may have already done this, put I will throw it out anyway.Our son was retained in Kindergarten and failed third grade. Make sure that your son’s hearing and eyesight are checked by specialists, in addition to the school and your pediatrician. Our son had a deficit in both and it wasn’t discovered until 4th grade.He goes to a reputable school and had a reputable Doctor. They managed to diagnose ADD and diagnose him having a learning disibility, prior to finding the hearing and sight deficit.If it wasn’t for us, he still wouldn’t be able to hear or see well.
Just a thought.

Thanks for the info. We’ve had our son’s hearing and eyesite both checked, but it may be a good thing to “double check.” I appreciate it! Dawn

Unfortunately, regular hearing and eye check-ups do not include tests for auditory processing and developmental vision delays — and these are often underlying problems with LD kids.

A developmental vision eval includes about 20 tests of visual function not covered in a regular eye exam — things such as speed of focusing, tracking, gross and fine saccades, field-of-vision, binocular fusion, etc. You can find certified developmental optometrists at http://www.covd.org.

Likewise, hearing tests that check acuity fail to test for a multitude of hearing disorders that can affect learning — e.g., ability to discern speech in the presence of background noise, distortion of sounds within the spectrum of speech, etc. The only professional qualified to assess the auditory system of a child is an audiologist who specializes in CAPD. Most audiologists do not have the training to conduct CAPD tests. You can find qualified CAPD audiologists at http://pages.cthome.net/cbristol/

Many of us have wrongly assumed that the usual auditory and vision checks rule out major problems in these areas. That is simply not true. Usually these two evaluations are covered by medical insurance, but few parents know enough to seek them out.

Mary

Mary - thank you so much for the additional information. I had no idea that the “regular” checks wouldn’t catch. And, come to think of it, I remember the resourse room teacher tell me, just the other day, that she noticed a “jump” in my son’s eyes while tracking an object. Luckily, she has special training for teaching children with visual problems. I will DEFINATELY be checking into this! Thanks again! Dawn

MaryMN,

This information is great and thanks for web sites. I have had my son’s hearing checked several years ago by an audiologist. He is 9 and recently I have noticed that if he is doing something else he won’t hear me. Of course neither does my husband when sports are on T.V. Some of it may be a guy thing.

I am going to have him rechecked. We have had him in sped for 4 yrs. but until I found this sight I never heard of this special eye exam and I will go for that too.

If there is anything I can find that could be contributing to his learning delays I will pursue it.

Thanks to all for being here.

If you have a choice of CAPD audiologists (from the website search engine), those affiliated with a major university or medical facility tend to be the most thorough and up-to-date.

You may want to check out the information at http://www.neuroacoustics.com also, especially if your son has problems with coordination, balance, rhythm, or gross/fine motor control. There is a lot of good information at the site on how auditory disorders can delay vestibular development and have wide-ranging negative impacts on the ability to learn.

If rhythm or coordination are problems, check out Interactive Metronome at http://www.interactivemetronome.com

After any sensory level deficits are remediated as much as possible (sensory level therapies would include sound therapies, FastForWord, NeuroNet, Interactive Metronome, vision therapy, occupational therapy and others) you may want to consider cognitive training. The best program for this is PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement, http://www.learninginfo.com). Cognitive training is limited by sensory/motor level problems, so you want to wait on this until all major sensory systems have been remediated as much as possible.

Mary

at http://www.balametrics.com

This is incorporated into NeuroNet therapy. It seems to help processing speed, and it’s an easy and inexpensive therapy to do at home.

Mary

Wow - you really know your stuff! I’ve got a lot of info to process here. Thanks for the web addresses. I’ll definately be checking them out. Being new to this “learning disability life” I’m glad to know there are so many ways to help.

We had our meeting this morning, and after talking it over, we unanimously decided that it would be worth it to hold our son back this year. There were way more pro’s than con’s in his situation. I’ve really appreciated everyone’s input! Thanks again Mary! Dawn