Gifted Children: should they skip a grade?

Mandi - posted on 05/06/2010

As far as I know the school board in Ontario will not let you skip grades anymore. brain magazine also reflected on a study in Switzerland that disagrees with moving children into a grade higher that their peers... the main reason for doing so that the children while similar to a more advanced group of children they are not. Their are differences. Especially when it comes to gym class... which has huge affects on a childs self esteem. THe best thing you can do they say is encourage the school to work with you at your childs level. It is up to the parents to push...btw the term is called exceptional with the school board now.

VicTORIa - posted on 05/01/2010

Here again is a subject which has been discussed in my family over multiple generations. My highly gifted father parented 10 children who were mosly highly gifted as well. He was a brilliant engineer, but had difficulties in social settings. It is not uncommon for highly gifted people to be emotionally challenged. He went to schools that specialized in training engineers and scientists, and did well with his peers. His daughters went to private schools with their age groups. His sons started school at an out of district school for K and 1st...and then were sent to private school to take 1st grade again, and schooled with a younger group, for social reasons. Maturity and ability to sit still in a classroom were more important than the content of the classes. Mom took the boys to accelerated classes out in the community, at museums and such. They took music lessons, and participated in sports if they wanted to. She felt that the best thing they could get from school was the ability to be social, and that meant that they had to have sufficient maturity to overcome the tendency to goof off...
I have found accelerated programs for my highly gifted daughters in out of district schools. The best thing my youngest daughter found on her own is a College Prep Charter K - 12 school that specializes in placing advanced learners appropriately, and with their peers...whatever age they may be. The same strategy does not work for all children. Gifted children differ in their strenghths and weaknesses. You need to evaluate over and over again what is working or not working in school. Some kids may prefer to be with their age group, others may prefer to be with intellectual peers. You need to ask your child what they feel is more important to them too.

Brenda - posted on 04/22/2010

Even though your child is academicly advanced, emotionally (maturity) he may not be. Just because he/she can read etc at a higher level, doesn't mean he doesn't want to "play" like kids his own age...my gifted son, is actually one of the oldest in his grade (September 3 b-day with September 1 as a cutoff). When he was in 5th grade, he could read at an 8th grade level, however, even now (7th grade) he's immature- likes to play in the rain/mud, dig etc.

Don't rush him! Many schools offer GT enrichment programs that will satisfy his education needs.

Dr. Peggy - posted on 04/18/2010

One of the true geniuses I know is a friend of my 27 year old. His parents did not want him to be isolated because of his intelligence (a childhood problem of both), so kept him with his grade level in the public schools, but involved him in all types of other intellectual activities both in and out of school. He was valedictorian of his class, lead the conga line at the graduation party, was accepted to MIT, and graduated in 3.5 years in computer science. Now at 27 he is married (2d of his group to do so), finished a master’s in public policy and still has a close group of friends he grew up with that he stays in touch with (the guys were the groomsmen in his wedding). I call that success. too.

FYI - he is an only child and the public school system here as an excellent honors and

AP program. They also were put in advanced classes in elementary.

Michelle - posted on 04/11/2010

Try some articles in the Hoagies website as well.
http://www.hoagiesgifted.com/eric/e526.h...
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/enrichment....

Sorry no opinion yet.:)

Glennis - posted on 04/06/2010

Hello Amanda,
I'm the mother of a gifted son and grand-mother to a gifted grand-son, both who have skipped classes. To add insult to injury, I am the daughter of my dad who jumped 4 classes because he was too bright for his age group.
I will deal with my own son who is a grown up man now and father of 2 with the 3rd on the way. My boy jumped 2 classes, and I thought nothing of it at the time. In fact, I felt quite proud, little realizing how this was affecting my boy. He always felt that he had missed his most important grounding in Mathematics because he jumped classes. It took me most of his senior years at school to convince him that he didn't need that "grounding" as his intellect surpassed that basic grounding. I also pointed out to him that he was coping very well with his flying career. (This was his hobby, flying light aircraft - he went solo legally on his 17th birthday and to this day can fly anything with wings or rotars and coped with the maths for flying). So my answer to you is, intellectually these kids can cope, but it is the emotional side you have to check out very carefully. You see, although my son coped very well intelectually, his emotional intelligence was and is at times, still very low. Low EI can sabotage your childs choices of friends; choices in careers; choices in marriage partners; choices in social activities; etc. My son has always been a loner, never did anything that the average child does, (thankfully), for example, he was never interested in clubing, group sports, etc. He found life easier to play musical instruments, listen to music (Scottish, Classical, to heavy metal)! As long as it was a alone activity or a one on one activity. The best solution too, to control his concentration, because gifted kids get bored very easily, was to keep him on a specific diet! This diet consisted of no sugar, no additives, no food colouring. Lots of protein, and especially never letting the child get hungry, because these kids don't seem to get the signal that they are hungry, and then they start getting fractious and annoying! This diet helps them to concentrate and also calm them down a lot. These kids also need a lot of quality sleep at night, as they also do not seem to know when they are over tired. Lots of fresh fruit, salads, water, watered down fruit juice, veggies and lean meat. (These kids seem to automatically have an adversion to fat on meat, which is not a bad thing really). You will probably find you will have to always be around encouraging and boosting their morale, as although they are gifted, they normally do not have a high opionion of themselves, in fact, they have a bad self image, especially when the emotional intelligence is acting too low.
I sincerely hope that these few pointers I have made, will be of assistance to you and your special angel. I wish you well and please remember to keep your temper and give your child a lot of love and affection, because bright kids can drive you crazy if you don't stay on top of the game. Yours sincerely, Glennis.xx

Amber - posted on 04/04/2010

I don't know were you live but i am in Ok. Here we have an online public school. I have put both of my gifted children in this school. the reason for this is that they were advanced for their grade and unable to excle in normal classrooms. I love the learning this why it is a very natural way for them to learn and they can move at their own pace. My fifth grade has finish most of the course work for fifth grade and has been able to move on to some sith grade class work. They are followed by a teacher and still able to enter act with other children. So this works well for us. You might check out what you state offers.

Aramanth - posted on 04/02/2010

I elected to put my children in the local primary school with their age peers. BOY was that a mistake! Their intelligence set them apart from the rest of the kids and they were bullied and harrassed on a daily basis because they didn't fit in. Their teachers agreed that they were highly intelligent and offered extended work but were unable to keep up with their needs. They 'coasted' to As regularly and (since they were and are basically good kids) spent 80% of every school reading novels as they had already finished all their work, and the extended work as well, before anyone else had finished the basic work.



In 2008 we moved them to a school that handles exceptional students - it's actually an all-years school from Preschool to Year 12. They have 2 or 3 (depending on placements) Gifted classes each year starting in Year 8 but will accelerate students younger for one or more subjects if that seems in the child's best interest. My older girl (highly gifted) is in the Accelerated stream, the younger girl ('merely' gifted) is in an Enrichment stream.



What a difference this school has made! They no longer stick out like sore thumbs. They have to work to get the As they coasted to before which is no bad thing. Best of all, they have age peers around them who are ALSO their Intellectual peers! They have made some great friends at this school, far more in the 2 years they have been there than in the entire 7 (and 8) years they spent at an 'ordinary' school. My only regret is that I didn't learn of this school earlier and send them many years ago.

Robin - posted on 03/28/2010

Hi All,
I have six children, and my oldest child just graduated from high school last year. All are coded gifted in the school system where we live. I have tried everything to keep them busy, from french immersion to skipping grades to homeschooling to having special programs for them at school. Skipping a grade worked very well in the public system for me. I found that the older children were not as intimidated if my son used a big word as children his age were. He was challenged and had to work a bit to keep up. It was not as much a problem in the older grades, as he was younger but everyone had always known that and accepted it. Where I had a problem was when I found a gifted school for my daughter. She had skipped two grades and was homeschooling, and we put her back in school in Grade 7 when she was ten. All of a sudden she was with all gifted kids and though she could still keep up academically, she didn't really need to be ahead in that setting because the program was already enriched. So I would say, if you can find a school especially for gifted children, that would be my first choice. if you can't find a gifted school, skipping a grade or two has worked very well for my kids in the regular system. that way I didn't have to fight every year with the teacher to give my child more challenging work, and I found he fit in better with the older children socially. I'm sure there is a psychological explanation for it, but I don't know what it is. I just know that after we skipped him two grades he finally had friends and was happy at school

Cathy - posted on 03/28/2010

Hi Kylie, If you can find any research against acceleration, could you post it on please? I'd like to read both sides of the argument. My son's psychologist wants to acelerate him, but I'm not sure its the right thing to do!

Kylie - posted on 03/23/2010

I am studying psych at present and there are always two sides to every argument and of course there is research pro acceleration (as provided by Julie) but you will also find research against it. It truly is a personal decision. I also lean on the side of keeping children with their age peers for social reasons but of course believe children need to be challenged within the classroom.

The child psych my son is seeing next week is not pro acceleration (and yes they are very experienced in assessing gifted children) but more for extension within the classroom through adding greater depth to tasks, including projects that require high order thinking skills etc. They are more about teaching children how to learn rather than pushing for work at grade levels above, as they agree with an earlier post, that most gifted children are already beyond 2 grade levels ahead and therefore will be just as bored within a few months and will need to be skipped again.

I think you just need to decide what will suit your child best and you are the best person to do that, so trust your instincts.

Julie - posted on 03/20/2010

Hi, May I suggest reading this webpage http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/nat... and the report it points to?

It shows that research over the past 50 years unequivocally supports acceleration in various forms including grade-skipping for gifted children with benefits in both academic and social areas.

This is a free download and well worth the read.

Heather - posted on 03/18/2010

My daughter was the same way. She went to 1st grade and they did not know what to do with her. They put her in 2nd grade. She has done fine with skipping one grade.

Charra - posted on 02/09/2010

I think that you are sitting a a double wedged blade with that one. If you put your child in a public 1 st grade then he is likley to get bored, then again putting him in a 2nd grade class he may not be emotionally ready to be with older kids. He is more likley to do better with more chalangeing work though. My 5 year old boy is in kinder, and is allready reading chapter books, he is very bored in class, and tends to just sit there. His teacher says that he doesnt complete his work because it is boring, and to give him harder work at home. His school does not offer gifted education until 3rd grade, so for now he is stuck. You may think about private schools, where your child can work at his own pace, I was also a private school kid, and skipped 10th grade this way. Though it is more expensive, the bebefit is huge, and your child will likely do MUCH better.

Megan - posted on 02/06/2010

Our daughter was leveled up this year. We were fortunate that our school system has been very helpful in providing different options for her including 1/2 day in one grade and 1/2 day in the higher grade. This was helpful in K-1st. Her second grade teacher was extraordinary in that she taught our daughter 3rd grade while in a second grade calssroom. THis year she skipped 3rd and went to fourth without problem-but now we are looking at leveling her up again for reading/language arts.

Also our school has an Excel program for gifted children where they can be with like peers.

Hope this was helpful.

I-Fan - posted on 02/06/2010

For most highly gifted students, one or two grades won't make a difference anyway! Social skills are a "subject" and need to be learned too. I did not move my daughter up a grade and certainly there were academic challenges to keep her from being bored. A great teacher will focus on some horizontal learning but that won't fix everything. Remember, your child will want to go to college after high school. Are you ready to have her leave home at 14 or 15? Will she be ready to deal with all the demands socially and otherwise, that that will place on her? I found something outside of my daughter's academic world that was a challenge for her, in our case, swimming. She became passionate about it, learned how to work for results and how to not be the best at something. Good luck!

Stacia - posted on 02/05/2010

I would send him to public school with his age group. Work with his teacher and make sure he's challanged as much as possible. Perhaps a high school student, preferably one who is gifted themselves, could come into his class once or twice a week and do some fun math or science activities with him. invest the money you were contemplating using for a private school into summer programs. I know Northwestern University has programming for gifted children as young as 5 or 6. There is likely a similar program at a university either in your state or a neighboring state. Regular school needs to be about learning how to interact with his peers. He is going to need to know how to have positive relationships with people who are not as smart nor as quick thinking as he is. That's life. This is more of a learning experience for gifted children than you might think. It's not a good idea to isolate him with only "smart" kids. Children in that setting tend to become too competitive and less likely to appreciate people who aren't like them. A Saturday soccer or T-ball league is a good idea as well. Even if he struggles a little bit. ....ESPECIALLY if he struggles a little bit. It's good to have to work hard at something. It doesn't have to be only academics. These are some of the strategies we used while raising our daughter. She is currently a freshman in the honors program at a top university (with an academic scholarship) and is doing very well. I am confident that she will contribute something to society AND have a happy life.

Teresa - posted on 02/05/2010

I have kept my daughter in with her peers, last year in 2 nd grade I literally bombarded her teacher with giving her challenges and she did... and she got other "smart " kids to be in a group with my daughter..so they were challenged too. This year she is in 3 rd grade but I have advanced her to 4 th grade in math and science. She is excelling in those subjects, bored with the regular but loves being with her friends. But now she is making some " older " friends and she will stay with the math group pretty much thru the entire school.. thru 12 th grade. I read a book about advancing kids and it really opened my eyes to the possibilities out there .. it was PRO skipping grades. I didn't do much for my boys cuase I heard about the maturity problems later on.. they are in high school and bored and only working at level . I have talked to other parents who didn't fighst for their kids and now they are high school drop outs..so you need to find some way of keeping them challenged.. each school is different.. each teacher is different..some will work with you, others will stick your child in a corner and let him/ her books all day ( one of my sons did that). We had a boy in our district who skipped 3 grades.. yes he was the smallest.. but he was so well liked and no one teased him. They eventually moved to a bigger district so he could be challenged more in high school.

Heather - posted on 02/04/2010

I think what's important for children is to be with children who are at the same emotional and social level as they are. My dd is in grade 4 but reads and comprehends at an 11th grade level. The last time her math was tested ( I think about a year ago) she was at 9th grade level but she would wither away if she were put in a class even a year ahead of where she is because she just doesn't have the emotional maturity to interact with them. What they do here in Canada is give gifted children an IEP (individualized education plan) in schools not large enough for a gifted program. So, when they're doing they're social unit on say, the FIrst Nations, while the other children are learning the basic curriculum for the unit my dd is given time to research more in depth and will be asked to come up with her own Myth or build a tee pee and a long house and explain why each housing unit was right for which tribe. In math she is allowed to progress at her own pace and is given more word problems and such to figure out instead of just doing the times tables (she needs to use her times tables to figure out the problems)



Some people have accused me of holding her back because I don't allow her to learn "more" than the curriculum (ie, geometry, trig). While she could learn that I'd rather see her stay somewhat level with her classmates until she's older. She only needs 1 or 2 exposures to something new to master it so once she does we let her have fun with her new foudn skill while the other kids continue to learn it.



I guess what I'm saying is find out if the school board will give your son something like an IEP and keep him with those of his own age. Being put in with older kids is only going ot make him stick out as the "smart kid" which he won't want and they get to be kids for such a short time. The primary grades are as much about socialization as they are about learning and for gifted kids the socialization is often harder for them to grasp than the academics.

Rachael - posted on 02/04/2010

Imagine high school. He's a Junior. All his friends are driving and dating. Many of them have jobs. He's too young for all of that. Academically gifted children need to learn to interact with same/similar-aged peers. They need to be children. I struggle with it, but I know that my daughter (In a very similar boat to your son's) is happy being encouraged to learn four year old skills. (I supplement her school work with museums and advanced readings. Home science experiences and more advanced textbooks that I purchase). We also attend a private school that allows quite a bit of individualized curriculum. Its pricey, but the best money I've ever spent.
If the public school is all that is available to you, I would suggest supplementing age appropriate classes with more advanced/more in-depth work. If his first grade class is studying the ocean, grow coral, visit aquariums, rent "the Great Barrier Reef" get a fish and discuss salt-water vs. fresh-water. Write a story about the ocean together. Head to a swimming pool with a snorkle and face mask and pretend to go scuba diving.

Suzanne - posted on 02/03/2010

I definately do not agree with "skipping" grades. My son was born in January so he has always had the advantage of being on of the oldest in his class. He was always a very bright student. He is now doing his PHD at Rutger's University in Computational Neuroscience. They were always talking about putting him ahead. One of the "labels" they put on him at one point was "learning challenged" because he didn't fit the "norm". In the end a group of about ten of us, the Principal, Vice-Principal, child phsycologists, teachers and previous teachers agreed that he should be given certain considerations. He was allowed more time on projects (if he was producing way beyond what they were looking for, they would not hold him back). Even in kindergarten, they would take him to each class in the school for him to demonstrate his latest (show and tell) chemistry project. It was the best thing they ever did, he was a shy kid otherwise. Last year he was asked to give a 45 minute presentation at a worlwide Neuroscience convention.

In my opinion, children need to learn but they also need to grow in other ways...why push it. Life is tough, kids that are smarter, older, maybe more athletic or whatever their individual strengths are should be able to take that advantage and let it work for them. Their peers play a huge part in their overall development. They all help and support each other along the way.

Let him grow with confidence!

Maria - posted on 02/02/2010

I had a similar situation wiht my now 11 yr old, we decided to keep him with his own age peers, social development is just as important as academics. Being smart is one thing, but wisdom is another.

Amanda - posted on 02/01/2010

yes i think keeping him with kids his own age is best for him im going to try this school that has classes by age he would be in a class with all 5 year olds so he will get that social interaction but each student works att there own pace. Some will be working on say like 2 nd grade and others may be higher or lower, but i think its my best option at this point and thank you for ur advice :D

Nancy - posted on 02/01/2010

I have a 29 year old son who was in private K-6 school until he blew through all the curriculum they had at 7 years old. The public school at that time would not put him in a higher grade - they were only placing children by age, and offering "advanced" classes for the smarter kids. I gave my son the choice - he could either go into 7th grade when he was 8 in a private school, or go into his own grade knowing he would be bored for awhile, learning the same things over again. We really talked about everything - like if he ever wanted to play sports in High School, dating girls... Ultimately, he chose to stay with kids his own age, and I am really glad he did. He was bored for awhile, but we did lots of things at home to keep his brain stimulated, and he was asked to participate in a lot of outside things in school (even got to take classes at the junior college a few times). When he was a junior in High School, he joined the football team and he really had a blast. Today his is a Doctor in AstroPhysics, married with a 2 year old, and the most normal, confident, well adjusted kid I know. Being with kids their own age makes a huge difference. It lets them blend in with their peers, and stand out for their accomplishments. I think being the little kid that is way ahead of his grade just makes kids an anomoly - why make them stick out more than they already do?

Michelle - posted on 02/01/2010

I would put him in with kids his own age. As a parent and a teacher, I am against skipping grades. In elementary school the social aspects aren't that bad; however, when he gets to middle school and high school 2 years age difference is huge. Also if he decided to play sports he would be at a disadvantage being younger and most likely smaller. I would send him with his regular grade and then work with his teacher to make sure he is being challenged. I have taught a variety of children ranging from mentally impaired up to gifted in the same classroom. It can be done!

Amanda - posted on 01/31/2010

yeah thats it in a nut shell. Im actually looking into a perocial school the school im looking into goes by sges not grades they have small class rooms about 15 kids and each is working at a different level but they have that common muritury level so i think im gonna try it and see how he does. thanks for ur advice

Nicole - posted on 01/31/2010

Your problem is going to be more with acceptance from peers. He's younger than most of them, and while I would say "Awesome! Go for 2nd grade!" the kids in 2nd grade would pick on him mercilessly and he would have very few friends because he would be completely different.