Sylvia Rimm on Raising Kids by Dr. Sylvia Rimm

Q: My child was promoted from kindergarten to first grade before she was ready with poor results. Our public school system doesn't allow holding children back because of immaturity. It would be helpful to many parents if you would update them on the research of Dr. Philip Shaw at the National Institute of Mental Health. This documents the wide range of ages at which peak brain size takes place. And that has great implications for parents trying to make difficult decisions about grade placement. You addressed this in a recent column.

Some children tend to reach peak brain size one to three years later than others. While some reach peak brain size — and undergo the process of neural pruning that results in the development of fine motor control and the ability to pay attention and organize — at an average age of 7.5 years, others reach that stage three years later. Dr. Shaw terms both patterns as normal because the later developing kids undergo a developmental spurt and catch up in brain development by their early teens.

There are, as you wrote in your column, "young children who struggle in first grade (who) may turn out to be the best hard-working students by middle school." You get it, but many state and local school boards don't. Too many children are discarded permanently as academically incompetent when they're just immature. I invite you to help publicize this as an alternative to our one-size-fits-none-very-well educational system.

A: I've answered many questions about early entrance to kindergarten and grade skipping for gifted children. I've also answered some questions about holding children back from kindergarten because of lack of readiness or immaturity. This is a first question in a long time that considers retaining a child in a grade, yet there are many times I have carefully recommended such retention.

The overall research on holding students back in a grade has usually found that retained children don't improve their achievement, theoretically, because the retention adversely affects their self-concept and motivation.

When research findings are quoted, they refer to statistically significant differences in large populations and not to all children in these studies. Despite the research, there are some gifted children who shouldn't be grade skipped and some capable children who should be retained because of immaturity and resulting poor achievement.

In my experiences with retaining children, I have often sought special opportunities to make retention somewhat easier. For example, if the child is moving to a new school or considering a move from public to private school or vice versa, those would be ideal times for grade retention with little peer pressure. The lower grades, like first or second grade, are easier to cope with both socially and academically than middle or high school grades. Also, when retaining a child in the same school, I usually recommend a change in teachers, so that the child doesn't feel as if he or she is repeating the exact same material.

Thanks to our reader for sharing her concern and her information with us. Each individual decision should be made carefully, since grade retention and acceleration decisions can affect children's lifelong achievement.

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Dr. Sylvia B. Rimm is the director of the Family Achievement Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, a clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the author of many books on parenting. More information on raising kids is available at www.sylviarimm.com. Please send questions to: Sylvia B. Rimm on Raising Kids, P.O. Box 32, Watertown, WI 53094 or srimm@sylviarimm.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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