retaining LD children

Research does not support the retention of children with learning disabilities, primarily because the learning difficulties and processing differences that initially identify a child as LD do not improve as a child ages without intensive, direct remediation.

Having said that, I will say that I have seen two instances where retention did appear to work during the elementary school years, at least. In both of these cases, three specific things were true. First, the child changed schools, thereby avoiding the stigma (I used to teach in an area with a strong magnet program). Second, a program that directly addressed the child’s needs was developed, given administrative support, and followed. Finally, each of these children were young for their grade, and socially immature, and so did benefit from an extra year of socialization. However, even under these ideal circumstances, these two children still struggled with the fact that they had “flunked”. They were also very aware that even though they had been retained, school was still more work for them than for their friends. Retention did not eliminate these LD-specific issues.

If the plan is to repeat first grade without significant changes in the instructional environment, I strongly agree with your sped teacher….of course, I’m one too!

This feels like one that certainly isn’t clear cut and could go either way. If you’re going to hold a child back, first grade is a good place to do it. What do the parents feel? How far off the mark is this child?

Has this ever happened before? Assuming this teacher has had other children with LD, why does the teacher recommend this child vs. others be retained? What is different about this child?

To me, “burden of proof” might fall onto the reg. teacher to explain her position and then you could assess the sense of it.

Check this article- paste the address into the browswer window.

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/legal_legislative/retention_in_early_grades

I have never been a retention fan- and have seldom seem it be effective for more than a year or so without a lot of other interventions. Any advantage that primary kids acquire from repeating their grade generally levels out after three years. The article has an excellent explanation of this. If you go tot the search page here and type in retention, there are more.

Robin

However, I still advocate for retention in K or 1 for very immature youngsters. This has been the mantra of the Gessell Institute for years. Sadly, with our new academic standards and our government, etc. pushing for every child to be on grade level, we are having a more difficult time retaining for social maturity. We rejected one recently at SST that I though was classic. A young first grader who exhibits global immaturity, but who has learned enough skills not to be in the very bottom of the class. The administrator said w/o the really low academics, we could not retain. Low academics are one of the worst reasons to retain and, indeed, the results you presented are often the case.

We did retain one of my students this year, over the objections of the principal. He was born 3 weeks before the cut-off, he spoke in single word utterances when he arrived in K (just finished first) and was considered for retention at end of K. Idea was rejected because the team felt he was better off in school all day long than a half day, so he went to first grade. He is cute, but a baby, he has no friends and is immature in all areas. We think the extra year in first will help him grow up a little and perhaps be able to have a few friends. He has had resource and speech intensively so his speech is improving (I guess to have friends you should be able to speak and understand). Anyway, fortunately his mother agreed w/o any argument. In my view, this is a reasonable cause for retention if you catch it very young.

I had one several years ago we never retained and should have, very similar. Extremely immature, very late birthday………but the teacher insisted he was socially appropriate (I never saw this, nor did the second or third grade teachers)…….he was passed on and is now in SDC. I suspect that he might have made a better adjustment having had an extra year in first and the opportunity to interact with a group whose social maturity level was more matched to his own, I have wondered if we would have sent him to SDC at all had this occurred.

I can’t find the article and I’d love to read it. When I cut and paste the address it tells me that it does not exist. Do you have it saved somewhere and can you cut and paste the article? If it’s too long it would be great to get it as an email to [email protected]

Thank you, Laura

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/legal_legislative/retention_in_early_grades.html

I couldn’t get the other paste to work either but this one went to the right place. Maybe I left out a letter or something at the end…sigh. If you can’t get this to work then go to “What’s New” at the top of this page. There is a link from there. The retention search will turn it up also. Thanks for letting me know- arghhh…:)

Robin

I guess it is a consideration that has to be made- especially when kids have early birthdays- like my two who started when they were four and turned five in October (were not retained but not because the K teacher didn’t want to) - but by and large it should be made more cautiously than it is I think. My old team reversed a retention of a child in my a while ago when he hit 5/6 because he was absolutely miserable and doing nothing, instead of just struggling with the LD issues. What a difference…

I have seldom, as a middle level person, run into a retention that worked when it was done in primary- I have seen two that have worked when done as fifth graders though. In my relatively new consultant role, it has gotten to the point that when a child is referred to me for testing now because of performance issues, I always check for retention in their records first. You would be amazed at how often it turns up. And the kids ALWAYS mention it in the interview. Unhappily.

I can’t say that it is never a good idea- that would be stupid- but it is a good choice on far fewer occasions than most folks think.

Robin

I am a mother of 2 children. They were not retained. One child is classified, and one child has a summer BD and I elected to start him late (BEST DECISION). If you are considering self esteem not to retain, consider the following- struggling through years of school with all of the services will hurt self esteem too. Sure self esteem will be hurt, and the child will know he/she was retained, but years of failure and being the weakest academically is damaging too. Maybe that year will allow the child to shine elsewhere with peers (more mature physically may give the child an edge with sport, for example). Self esteem can be built up in other ways, and maybe the child can have goals that will allow him/her to experience academic success and be happy next year, despite retention. The academic standards today are tough, life is long, what is the rush all about anyway? I do think parents need to be included in the decision making with all info presented to them (pros and cons). This has got to be an agonizing decision for them.

We rarely retain. As I said above, I personally believe retention, when it is recommended, needs to be based more upon the child’s social/emotional maturity level than on academics.

I just sent a group of 6th graders on. Of this group, two had been retained (at previous schools, one at parent demand) and one was held out of school an extra year by parent due to late b-day (often a good move when parent is savvy to social/emotional issues). All three have made great strides. Two are doing quite well and are well-adjusted with their peers and their lives. One has huge and major family problems that probably exacerbate his LDs and that we cannot fix at school. he has made less progress, though he works well in his peer group.

Sadly I never see what happens to them as they hit high school. I do believe, of the above group, one will go to college, another will get some sort of post secondary training (good families) and the third is really at risk in my view.

Hey there:)

It is a tough decision no matter how you look at it. One of my son’s best friends was held out a year and it was a good choice for him. And I agree- social/emotional reasons are usually better than academic ones. I am troubled by a tendency I see to retain before testing though- we know so much more about early warning signals for LD- though not nearly enough- that it doesn’t make sense to me not to check those out before having the retention conversation. I do not see that nearly enough. But, no matter how you slice it, it is hard on families and kids and statisically the payoff is very small.

Robin

Laura

If a child is classified, his IEP will drive the curriculum and instructional modifications he/she needs. Why retain? Unless socially the child will benefit from being around children a year below - remember, the age-appropriate kids make for better role models!

First of all the regular education teacher can not make that decision on her own. All decisions regarding a special education student should be made by the entire committee.
The special education teacher should call a meeting with parents, principals, all teacher involved, and all other professionals involved with the child. They should discuss the social ramifications of holding the student back along with any academic gains that the child may have if he is held back. The “committee” should come to an agreeable educational plan that is best for the child. I have had students that were retained before they were placed in special education and they did suffer socially. They were older and more mature than the students in their class. They could not relate to the other students and their behaviors caused them to become isolated by peers. There is alot a difference in achildren that are a year apart. Discuss your concerns with your principal and the special education teacher and propose a meeting of the minds.