belle&beast
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2005
- Messages
- 2,123
OP, I feel for you, we struggled with this decision last year, and decided to wait. DD's birthday is July 24 and the cutoff is August 1. I am a speech therapist in preschools, so I had lots of professionals to consult. The one thing that helped us the most was a friend of mine said that you will never hurt a child by waiting a year, but you could hurt them by starting too soon.
I was really young in my class and the early years were not a problem, it was junior high when everyone was developing and I was not. Then in high school everyone was starting to drive and I couldn't even take driver's ed with my class and my dad had a no dating until you're 16 policy and I turned 16 my junior year. I started college at 17 and didn't turn 21 until my senior year.
Only you know your child, but this is our experience. My DD was ready academically, but was more reserved and tended to be more of a follower with friends. Now, she is thriving in preschool and her teacher thinks the extra time has given her more confidence. I don't consider it "holding her back" because it really was just waiting until she is ready.
I was really young in my class and the early years were not a problem, it was junior high when everyone was developing and I was not. Then in high school everyone was starting to drive and I couldn't even take driver's ed with my class and my dad had a no dating until you're 16 policy and I turned 16 my junior year. I started college at 17 and didn't turn 21 until my senior year.
Only you know your child, but this is our experience. My DD was ready academically, but was more reserved and tended to be more of a follower with friends. Now, she is thriving in preschool and her teacher thinks the extra time has given her more confidence. I don't consider it "holding her back" because it really was just waiting until she is ready.