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The child that doesn't learn to read in the first grade will be behind his classmates. That's when he should be held back until he can hold his own with them. Otherwise, he may never catch up. Children can be cruel. The child that can't read is often called dumb. Soon he begins to believe it.
Children just don't all get ready to learn at the same rate. Those that just barely make the cutoff date usually have the most trouble.
It's not fair to them to promote them when they can't do the required work because of poor reading skills. It's a problem that will follow them all the rest of their lives.
If you didn't learn the material you should be held back. We have to many kids in 10th grade reading at a 3rd grade level. If they need to be held back in the same grade for a third year, I think they need to be moved into some sort of special ed class. Whe be in___ grade just because you are ___yrs old?
My child is a younger student (June birthday) then her classmates. Her preschool teacher suggested she do another year of preschool before entering kindergarten. Unfortunatly, I didn't listen because I figured with extra help and tutoring she would catch up. In the past she has struggled with reading comprehension and math. Also, I noticed that she was always behind the first half of the year and most of the time caught toward the end of the school year. However, this year as a 3rd grader it was more difficult. I have a child in 11th grade and one in college. Having two older children, I know her academic future will be very difficult if we don't make changes now. Thankfully, her teacher is supportive of retention for her but the principal isn't. The latest stats have shown a high drop out rate for students that have been retained. I disagree. I know many that were (including my husband and myself) and it was one of the best decisions our parents made.
It's a tough call, pll. If it is truly a matter of maturity, then retention can be a good move, though probably preferable prior to 3rd grade. But if your daughter's struggles are due to an undiagnosed learning problem, then repeating the year without addressing the problem could very well result in a similarly frustrating year with the possible added concern of social stigma and the kind of frustration that contributes to the high dropout rate you mentioned. If a child is being taught in a way that doesn't work for her, repeating the year being taught the same way probably won't help, so try to take a hard look at why she is struggling.
It is harder to do when they are in the third grade than it would have been in the first. But what is done, is done and can't be changed.
One good solution if possible, is to send her to a different school at the same grade level next year. See that she gets extra help this summer. It may be enough to help her catch up. They can
forget so much over the summer. She may just need to get a little more mature.
If nothing else, get books from the library and get her to read aloud to you as much as possible. The practice will help. She's old enough now to understand the need for the extra work.
She was diagnosed last summer with mild CAPD and she has tongue thrust which can affect her learning and spelling. She reads at grade level but she has a hard time with comprehension and her spelling is bad when writing sentences. She gets A's on spelling tests though. Her IQ is normal and in above average in commuication.
At the beginning of 3rd grade, I met with a team of learning specialists (IEP, 3rd grade teacher, psychologist, speech teacher, principal and vp) They made a learning plan for her and have offered her extra math/speech help this past year. Also, I spoke with them of my desire to retain her with the hopes that they could give me some feedback at the end of 3rd grade as to if this would be a good idea or not. Surprisingly, her IEP and teacher agreed that retaining-if done in the right way-would be beneficial to her. Sidenote: They each have sibs that were retained, one in 5th and one in 6th. They are doing well today).
Yes, I agree-changing elementary schools is necessary for this to work. Is she happy about this? No, not really. She says she feels 'dumb' and is sad when her friends talk about going to 4th grade. We encourage her and let her know she isn't 'dumb' just too young for her grade. We told her that we enrolled her in school too early and we think it would be better for her if she repeated 3rd grade. We let her know the positives of this decision.Plus, she will continue to get special help for math as long as it's necessary. We aren't telling everyone. At this point, only her immediate family members know and her teachers .
I have asked myself which is worse getting poor grades all the time or making new friends and changing schools? A child going through this is already feeling poorly about themself every time they get a paper back and the grade is low or that they are the last one finished on class assignments. She has cried many mornings before school not wanting to go and complaining that the work is too hard. This will allow her to build a stronger foundation, build her self esteem and confindence and mature.
I found this to be true for me when I was retained in 3rd grade in the late 60's. Educators were more supportive of it. Schools don't really want to pay for the extra year of educating student. I've had a few years to research this topic and I have only met one person who ended up dropping out of high shool. He was held back in 5th grade but he had a bad home life.
All parent's out there- please learn from my mistake. Choose one more year of preschool if given the choice.
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