OT - child skipping a grade

[andrews_dad]

I am a guidance coun at the elem grade levels. I suggest you put in a formal request for your child to be tested by the school district psychologist. You need to ascertain her IQ, imo. In my state, a formal request for such with a parent signature and date upon the letter forces the public school to act. The timeline starts immediately, and testing must be complete withing 60 days. If her IQ comes in at 120/125 or above, she is in need of specially designed instruction... most states call it an IEP.. individual education plan. I've seen kids skip grades and excel, and I've seen them skip grades and get crushed by the weight of the social game at 6th-8th grade when the drama and bullying starts. Good luck.

 

[Buzz's Buddy]

My oldest DS is currently a junior in high school. His birthday is November 5th. He was place in the gifted and talented program early on in elementary school and was also referred to Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.

When my son was in the 5th grade, we met with the principal, guidance couselor and curricculum director to discuss him skipping 6th grade. By this time, he had already been cross-graded in math and was doing extremely well. My son was very mature for his age (socially). He was a voracious reader and excelled at all of his subjects. He ended up skipping 6th grade and didn't miss a beat, socially or academically.

Currently, my son is #1 in his class (of about 100), and has been since entering high school. He took the SAT in January and scored 710 in reading and 720 in math. He'll be taking them again in May because he was disappointed in those scores.

Looking back, we know we made the right decision. It's certainly not for everyone and we would not have done it if he was not socially ready to handle it. But for our son, it was the absolute correct decision.

 

[adventure_woman]

OP again. Well, on Thursday we will be doing some testing to see where we are at.

It does amaze me though the difference in schooling around the country - and the age range for kindergarten. My DD isn't even the oldest in her class - there are 2 older than her. I have several teacher friends who did not send their LOs because they would be the youngest - one b-day in June and the other in August, then 2 in Nov. And every person I have ever talked to either said to NOT send her until she was turning 6 or they regretted sending their LO when they had just turned 5 and they wish they had waited. (one person I remember on the WDW bus said she wished she had waited to send her DD!).

 

[Leajess99]

My DD was tested w/the Woodcock-Johnson III test when she was 5 and tested in the >99.9% for all areas except visual assesment and that was 98%. The school psychologist did this before she started K at our request.

Then in 3rd grade everyone takes the Otis Lennon (OLSAT). She (and one other child in our fairly large district) scored 100%. And she had already skipped so she was a year younger than everyone else.

This means she is at least 3 standard deviations from the norm w/an IQ over 150. (We don't have an accurate score since she hit the ceiling on both tests.) Schools would automatically make accommodations for kids that strayed this far in the opposite direction, but very few do for the kids at this end of the spectrum.

But I will add.. if you met her she would blend right in with your average teenager. Her common sense is almost non-existent and she is very disorganized. My other child is very smart, but nothing like she is. He pays so much more attention to what is going on around him, is organized and has a stronger work ethic. His grades are often higher (because she tends to lose things) and I don't worry about him nearly as much.

These are both commonly used tests but I assume different psychologists and schools use other ones. You can call your local public school and ask. I believe they need to test your child if you ask when she is closer to K age.

Check this out: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/why_test.htm This is a very respected website for parents with G/T kids.

HTH

Hmmm, she sounds like my 14 year old. She has had some great teachers and because the schools challenged her more we did not move her up as she was already one of the youngest in every class. My daughter is also considered Twice-exceptional which I found out about thanks to another poster here.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Op, I think it does vary depending on the area. I live in a very well ranked school district & red shirting is frowned upon. I considered red shirting 2 of mine & was quickly talked out of it by preschool teachers & an evaluation with the kindergarten. I'm happy that I didn't. Even though they're among the younger set, they both score very, very well academically. Our cutoff is Dec. 31st so we have many 4 yo's in kindergarten. I can't imagine a 6 yo in that type of classroom.

 

[Leajess99]

I am a guidance coun at the elem grade levels. I suggest you put in a formal request for your child to be tested by the school district psychologist. You need to ascertain her IQ, imo. In my state, a formal request for such with a parent signature and date upon the letter forces the public school to act. The timeline starts immediately, and testing must be complete withing 60 days. If her IQ comes in at 120/125 or above, she is in need of specially designed instruction... most states call it an IEP.. individual education plan. I've seen kids skip grades and excel, and I've seen them skip grades and get crushed by the weight of the social game at 6th-8th grade when the drama and bullying starts. Good luck.

Kids here in the gifted program do NOT get IEPs, they get GSSP (Gifted Student Service Plan). My youngest has an IEP for her speech and my middle one has a GSSP.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

My husband decided to allow the skip.

That sounds really odd and makes me sad for you.

I hope you agreed together that it was a wise choice for your daughter.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

My boys both have December birthdays. The cut off when they started K was December 1st. So they were both born a few days too late to start when they were 4 years old. (Our school just changed the cut off too November 1st starting next year)

My youngest DS fits into his grade perfect. He is in 5th grade and turned 11 in December. He has lots of friends, and does pretty good in school.

My oldest DS was above grade level in K and 1st. He was a very fast learner, and he just loved to learn. He was also very mature for his age. His 1st grade teacher suggested that we have him skip 2nd grade. We did end up following her advice, and it has worked out great for him. He is now in 7th grade and turned 12 in December. He has a great group of friends, he still gets all A's, and he still takes what ever advanced classes our school offers. (which aren't all that many) He still finds school easy. We never had him tested. Our school didn't require it. We also still keep him active in after school activities and he has been learning spanish on his own. This helps keep him busy.

I have never been a fan of holding a child back based on age. If my boys had been born a few days earlier, they would have started school at age 4. Someone has to be the youngest, and someone has to be the oldest. There really isn't anything wrong with that. Maybe some day we will regret skipping him, but for now it is working out great. I think where we might have problems is when he starts college at 17 years old, but that will only be for about 3 and 1/2 months...

 

[zoemurr]

Hmmm, she sounds like my 14 year old. She has had some great teachers and because the schools challenged her more we did not move her up as she was already one of the youngest in every class. My daughter is also considered Twice-exceptional which I found out about thanks to another poster here.

14 now too. The school cut-off here is 12/1 and she is 2/6 so she was on the older end, and very tall and mature for her age. If her K teacher was amazing I'm not sure we would have skipped her but it was a trainwreck. My other post explains it more.. but so far she is in 9th and we don't regret it at all. If we had stayed on the path we were on I think we would have had more issues than we do now.

 

[ykmom]

I have thought about this too - she has already read all the AG books - by this summer I'm going to have to find other series for her to read as much of the content in other books are too old for a 6 year old!

My concern is just for her to be happy and enjoy school - which is not happening at this moment.

Try the "Candy Fairies" series by Helen Perlman they would be quite age appropriate.

 

[zoemurr]

Kids here in the gifted program do NOT get IEPs, they get GSSP (Gifted Student Service Plan). My youngest has an IEP for her speech and my middle one has a GSSP.

Gifted kids here get nothing.. a twice a week pull out if they're lucky. It's more like a social club. No individual plans unless your parent is a squeaky wheel. (Mine had an individual plan in K-2 because I initiated things early, but when the "challenge program" kicked in at 3rd grade there wasn't much of anything.)

Fortunately we do have a lot of advanced classes and she was able to take Biology in 8th and Algbra 2/Trig in 9th.

I think this varies greatly by region too.

 

[adventure_woman]

Try the "Candy Fairies" series by Helen Perlman they would be quite age appropriate.

Thanks - she has finished all those too (at least all the ones in our library). She also LOVED all fairy books by Daisy Meadows - she just needs to write them a lot faster. (those only take her about 30-60 min to read)

 

[platamama]

Gifted kids here get nothing.. a twice a week pull out if they're lucky. It's more like a social club. No individual plans unless your parent is a squeaky wheel. (Mine had an individual plan in K-2 because I initiated things early, but when the "challenge program" kicked in at 3rd grade there wasn't much of anything.)

Fortunately we do have a lot of advanced classes and she was able to take Biology in 8th and Algbra 2/Trig in 9th.

I think this varies greatly by region too.

Our school district stopped doing pull-outs for elementary grade TAG this year, and instead implemented a "push-in" model. Basically that means the classroom teacher gets an extra body in there to help with everyone (for maybe 30 minutes a week) and nothing for TAG kids specifically. Super lame IMO.

Our state is 41st in the nation in per pupil spending, and $2500 less than the national average for per pupil spending, and the past four years have seen an aggregate $1B (not a typo) cut in K-12 education spending. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised at what the state of education here is right now. In our situation, a grade skip is the only way to getting any instruction even close to the level DD needs.

 

[pocomom]

I am a guidance coun at the elem grade levels. I suggest you put in a formal request for your child to be tested by the school district psychologist. You need to ascertain her IQ, imo. In my state, a formal request for such with a parent signature and date upon the letter forces the public school to act. The timeline starts immediately, and testing must be complete withing 60 days. If her IQ comes in at 120/125 or above, she is in need of specially designed instruction... most states call it an IEP.. individual education plan. I've seen kids skip grades and excel, and I've seen them skip grades and get crushed by the weight of the social game at 6th-8th grade when the drama and bullying starts. Good luck.

In our district you need to test above 130 for services, in addition too achieving at a certain level in state tests, teacher referal etc.

 

[momsully]

The differences in K and 1st grade often times level out by the time children reach 3rd grade. All kids go into K at a different level of readiness so there can often be very big extremes in that classroom. If you do feel she is gifted either have her tested by the school district or pay for an educational pyschologist to do the testing for you. We actually paid for private testing for both of our boys, oldest due to some processing delays and youngest to help make some education decisions.

Youngest DS is 11 and in 5th grade. He missed the cut off for K when he started by 2 weeks. We looked at skipping in first grade but instead went into a full time gifted program. We had to leave our neighborhood school as this program is only offered at select schools in our district but it has been fantastic.

I was the youngest in my class and while it was fine it is hard to drive later, be legal to drink later, etc than all my friends. Look at all the options available to you and see what the public school has to offer to help make your decision.

 

[ccgirl]

This may have been said already but I didn't have time to read all posts, sorry. My daughter goes to a private religion based school as well and I am actually putting her in public middle school as they have different "levels" of academics. She has always read "years ahead" her peers. She gets mainly A+'s. Religion based schools tend to teach middle of the road - or whatever parent complains the loudest. They recommended my DD skip a grade as well but I did not. While in the lower grades it doesn't seem like a big deal I thought it might when she got older.

I would seek professional advice here. A PP, a school guidance counselor, recommended testing within the district. I think that is a great piece of advice.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[averysmom]

Thanks - she has finished all those too (at least all the ones in our library). She also LOVED all fairy books by Daisy Meadows - she just needs to write them a lot faster. (those only take her about 30-60 min to read)

Dd was reading at a 6th grade in grade one-she did a lot of classics- the Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, The Little House series (these were great because they sparked an interest in pioneers, and she was able to do additional non-fiction research) and the Anne of Green Gables series. Some others that she enjoyed were: the Sisters Grimm ( series), Julie of the Wolves, Ella Enchanted, The Princess Academy and Half-Magic ( easy series). The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary are also great, (but easy), and anything by Roald Dahl is popular in our house too. Suddenly Supernatural (series) were also okay.

Hth!

 

[kjpotter]

Thanks - she has finished all those too (at least all the ones in our library). She also LOVED all fairy books by Daisy Meadows - she just needs to write them a lot faster. (those only take her about 30-60 min to read)

Try the Heidi Heckelbeck series. My daughter loved them.
The Tiara Club books by Vivian French - similar to the Fairy Books
Magic Pony by Elizabeth Lindsay

 

[squirrel]

Try Peter and the Starcatchers (this one is long-you might need to help)

Then there are spin offs from that book The Neverland series and the rest of the Starcatchers.

Ridley Pearson has the Kingdom Keepers series which is also great for older kids.

 

[mrudman]

I've been following this thread for a few days now, and find it interesting how the different states test for gifted programs, or for skipping grades.

Our city really frowns on skipping grades, but they do have a strong gifted program.

All kids are given the state-wide test (IOWA test) in 2nd grade, then the CoGat in 3rd grade. Based on their scores on those 2 tests determines if they're eligible for our city's gifted program.

I can't remember the exact scores/percentiles that my daughters had to meet, but I believe it was a score of 130 or higher on the cognitive ability test, AND score 97 percentile in 2 of the 3 areas tested (i forget what those areas were), PLUS score 95 percentile in overall cognitive ability.

I do remember that my older dd (6th grade) missed being accepted into OASIS (the gifted program) by 1 point... she had scored 98% overall cognitive, above 97% in 2 of the 3 areas, but she scored 129 on the CoGat.
I could have her retested, but she's happy, doing very well in school, and I just don't see the reason to.

My younger dd, on the other hand, did qualify for OASIS, so she's been participating in that since the beginning of this year (4th grade). She gets pulled out one full day a week to go to the middle school and partake in an all-day class of 8 other 4th graders. They do more creative-type things on this day. For example, each grading period is divided into a unit. The first grading period, she learned all about the brain, what parts control what, dissected a sheep's brain, etc. 2nd grading period was learning all about the judicial system, they pair with the 5th and 6th grade OASIS kids and put on a mock trial, etc. 3rd grading period was learning all about the Iditarod, making predictions on who would win, learning about all the participants, etc.

But what kind of surprises me about my daughters is that when they were young, my older dd is the one that always learned things at a much earlier age. She was reading by 3 1/2 yrs old, chapter books by 4 1/2 yrs. Younger dd didn't learn how to read until she was 5 1/2 yrs. But younger dd has a memory now that just floors me. She brings up events that happened when she was 3-4 yrs old, which I know I never discussed with her, and will tell me details about it.