Retention, has anyone requested it?

Hi susan,
I retained my son in K, big difference compared to what you are facing. However, in my quest for knowledge while coming to this decision, I researched alot of good info on retention. Here are some of the websites. They are all reputable studies. It might not be what you want to hear. I don’t want you to think I’m only passing on info against retention. It was just very hard to find any evidence supporting retention. I’m not familiar with your son’s specifics, but it is only the right decision in a very few cases. It rarely does any good and usually only makes things worse.

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/legal_legislative/grade_retention.html#Retention

http://www.nasponline.org/information/pospaper_graderetent.html

http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/012299sou-promote.html

http://npin.org/library/pre1998/n00348/n00348.html

If a child is receiving/eligible for special ed services it seems kind of silly to retain them. They should be receiving supports, accomodations, adjustments, modifications, etc to allow him to progress and be successful. Overall, the research is overwhelming about retention-i’ve read students are anywhere from 3 to 11 times more likely to drop out if they have been retained. Students most often retained are the ones who have difficulty with academics for whatever reason. Retention is not an effective tool to try to have a child “catch up”, or “mature.” Research it carefully. Try the national assocation of school psychologist (naspweb.org) as a place to start researching retention.

He is ADD and has some sensory motor issues. His motor skills were so behind at that time that he could barely hold a pencil and write his name. He was behind in other areas as well. My son is now 12-1/2 and in 6th grade. Although his problems certainly did not disappear, I am very glad I had him retained! I definitely feel the extra year of maturity was a gift to him, not a curse. He still has learning issues, but has never needed remediation. I feel that he would have if he were not retained. However, I hadn’t read studies about retention back when I made this decision. I didn’t realize most of the studies show that retention does not help. This surprises me.

I’ve been in your shoes and so have lots of parents. The thought being ‘if I could just get him/her a year to catch up’. The reality is that it is unlikely that they will catch up - they need specific skills taught. Those 9%ile skills won’t get better in a year if they are not intensively addressed.

There is a great deal of social stigma attached to retension when a child is this age. Are you planning on switching schools? I would not retain and keep the child within the same school.

It is very difficult to watch your child sinking under the weight of the expectations, knowing he/she simply does not have the skills required. The ideal, of course, would be the school to address his needs. If not, you need to be case manager and find the therapies that will address his needs.

Good luck

I have a nephew in this situation. The mom is planning on changing schools and telling her son that the new school teaches things earlier so that 3rd grade at the new school is like 4th grade at the old school. There is a tiny morsal of truth to this statement so hopefully it will be believable.

I really agree. It is hard to watch you child struggle. Unfortunately the schools answer is often to just retain or give the child easier work.
I personally believe this is the worst thing you can do to a child who is more often than not bright but struggling with basic skills.

They will still have the learning deficit in the end. If they didn’t learn it the first go around I doubt they will learn it the second time around if it is just the exact same approach. These children do not need repetition they need an individualized approach that actually addresses the underlying deficit.

We are retaining our fourth grade son. He is going to switch to the parochial school his siblings attend which is ahead of the public schools. We are not switching him to retain him but rather we want him in that school because we want to avoid the public middle schools (although we have talked about retaining him for several years but had the schools not want to do it.) He is not as far behind as your child. He will easily be at grade level by repeating a grade. He will have support services available to him but we all hope that he will be able to do OK without it. There is a stigma attached to going to resource room too so I hope the two things balance out for him. He has actively participated in the decision to switch schools.

My son has lots of different types of LDs and we have been working very hard with him for three years. We always seem to be behind the demands of school. He also is immature for his age—fits in well with kids a year younger.

I think it is clear that doing the same thing again doesn’t work for LD kids. The gift of time only helps if you use that time to do something different. I also know moms who pulled their kids out for a year around your son’s age and did intensive therapy with them to catch them up.

Beth