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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Very interesting!  New Yorker ran a piece on this a few years ago with the exact opposite conclusion.

[quote]Youngest Kid, Smartest Kid?

These skills translate to a mindset that is crucial to lifelong achievement. In a way, the choice between redshirting and not is the choice between providing your child with a maturity boost or a challenge. While there is certainly an absolute benefit to being bigger and stronger, learning to deal with and overcome obstacles also has a long-lasting effect. It’s a quality the psychologist Angela Duckworth calls “grit,” and Carol Dweck dubs the “incremental mindset”: the knowledge that perseverance, dedication, and motivation can help you where an absolute advantage may not immediately come to the rescue. If you’ve always been praised as the best and brightest, chances are that that self-perception will eventually backfire; if you’ve had to earn your distinctions, they’re more likely to last.[/quote]

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/youngest-kid-smartest-kid

[/quote]

People always link to that article in these discussions, but there  has been so much other research for and against redshirting since it came out that I think it's a little irrelevant at this point. And about the whole grit thing... as people of younger children in the grade will tell you, just because you were the oldest doesn't necessarily mean you are the best or won't have to try hard in various aspects of school and life in general. Older children will likely be more mature and possibly less stressed about tasks like lining up, behavior systems, or transitions, but they won't be the best at everything because no one is. Most likely they will have opportunities to develop grit. And also, they will likely feel competent as opposed to inferior, as they ar tackles g academic tasks at a more developmentally appropriate time, which also has lasting effect through school.[/quote]

They aren't more mature, they are a year older, so what someone says is mature for a child a year older is not really mature.  We found when kids are held back they act younger and when younger kids are with older ones they act older.  Our child does much better being the youngest.  It depends on the child.  But, to say an 8 year old 2nd grader is more mature than a 7 year old is false as it should be based on age.  That 7 year old will probably have equal maturity when they are 8 too.[/quote]

I hear what you ar saying, but my point is that they are more mature for the situation that they are experiencing. Yes, the 7 year old will be more mature when they are 8, but that is a year later and a whole other set of expectations will be put upon both children at the same time then. For kindergarten an almost 6 year old and an almost 5 year old will be expected to line up, sit for extended periods of time, and transition accordingly. Of course not in all cases, but an older child may find these things less stressful because they can follow these directions more easily. Of course the almost 5 year old will be able to do them eventually, but in the moment it doesn't matter as both children are expected to do it with the same outcome at the same time. One may be able to, just because of maturity, and one may not. Obviously some 4 year olds can do these tasks no problems and some 6 year olds struggle with them, but overall I believe older children (and not just red shirted kids, just the older ones) have an advantage here. FWIW, I am an educator and have experienced this with kids firsthand.[/quote]

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