redshirting has a negative effect on student outcomes

[Anonymous]

You can argue all you want - but parents are going to do what they feel is best for their own child no matter what. Its part of being a parent. Sure I am conscious and considerate of others in my life - but my kid comes first to me. Why wouldn't he?

Exactly. Would you suggest that we not read to our kids in order to not get a jump on those whose parents do not read to their children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You can argue all you want - but parents are going to do what they feel is best for their own child no matter what. Its part of being a parent. Sure I am conscious and considerate of others in my life - but my kid comes first to me. Why wouldn't he?

Exactly. Would you suggest that we not read to our kids in order to not get a jump on those whose parents do not read to their children?

If parents abide by the official September 30 cutoff instead of the unofficial July cutoff, then there would be less worry about incorrect ADHD diagnoses.

You can read to your children or not. The official guidelines are to read to your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You can argue all you want - but parents are going to do what they feel is best for their own child no matter what. Its part of being a parent. Sure I am conscious and considerate of others in my life - but my kid comes first to me. Why wouldn't he?

Exactly. Would you suggest that we not read to our kids in order to not get a jump on those whose parents do not read to their children?

If parents abide by the official September 30 cutoff instead of the unofficial July cutoff, then there would be less worry about incorrect ADHD diagnoses.

You can read to your children or not. The official guidelines are to read to your children.

And the official guidelines (meaning: the state law) also are that a parent or guardian who finds that their child is not mentally, physically, or emotionally prepared to attend school may delay the child's attendance for one year.

http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/22.1-254/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You can argue all you want - but parents are going to do what they feel is best for their own child no matter what. Its part of being a parent. Sure I am conscious and considerate of others in my life - but my kid comes first to me. Why wouldn't he?

Exactly. Would you suggest that we not read to our kids in order to not get a jump on those whose parents do not read to their children?

If parents abide by the official September 30 cutoff instead of the unofficial July cutoff, then there would be less worry about incorrect ADHD diagnoses.

You can read to your children or not. The official guidelines are to read to your children.

No one is going to diagnose your child with ADHD without your permission. Teachers are not allowed to diagnose. You'd need an evaluation of some sort to get that diagnosis. So don't do it.

[Anonymous]

If parents abide by the official September 30 cutoff instead of the unofficial July cutoff, then there would be less worry about incorrect ADHD diagnoses.

Are you worried about it? Sounds like you think your kid does not belong in K.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't anyone talk about the new York times article about the negative impact of red shirting on the growth of your own child.

My colleague is red shirting a May boy who is academically advanced. I think red shirting is getting out of control unless they are the absolute outlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn't anyone talk about the new York times article about the negative impact of red shirting on the growth of your own child.

My colleague is red shirting a May boy who is academically advanced. I think red shirting is getting out of control unless they are the absolute outlier.

If your colleague asks your opinion about this, that's when you can talk about the New Yorker article.

[Anonymous]

I think there should be sticky threads on redshirting, SAH v. WOH, and circumcision. Not sure why people feel compelled to start a new thread on one or more of these topics each week and then make the same arguments ad nauseam. All of them seem to take on a life of their own due to posters who can't help but be outraged by the choices other people make about their own lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You can argue all you want - but parents are going to do what they feel is best for their own child no matter what. Its part of being a parent. Sure I am conscious and considerate of others in my life - but my kid comes first to me. Why wouldn't he?

Exactly. Would you suggest that we not read to our kids in order to not get a jump on those whose parents do not read to their children?

If parents abide by the official September 30 cutoff instead of the unofficial July cutoff, then there would be less worry about incorrect ADHD diagnoses.

You can read to your children or not. The official guidelines are to read to your children.

Actually I think it's likely that the actual data out there show that redshirting has little to no class-wide impact on ADHD diagnoses. If it had a significant impact, the Canadian study would have come out differently from the various US studies, because redshirting is considerably less common in Canada. There is no study that shows that redshirting has any impact whatsoever on rate of ADHD diagnosis.

I think it's very likely that redshirting has no statistical impact whatsoever on classrooms, but on individual kids there can be a significant impact. The issue is that basically for individual kids you need to weigh the likelihood of an ADHD diagnosis over the possible negative impacts (see, e.g., the Deming/Dynarski paper, though there is debate over their methodology which seems fairly sloppy in my opinion). Either way there aren't good options.

I realize it's fun to get frothy and indignant about redshirting, but it would be nice if you'd spend that considerable energy trying to change the educational system such that this gross imbalance based on age exists, rather than armchair judging parents who are unlucky enough to have a child born on the cusp. It's appalling that youngest kids are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, whether there is redshirting or not.