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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Kids don’t need special skills or talents to be in immersion. Where did all the PPs get that idea?? My kids started in immersion in K. The point is that kids pick up language much, much more easily when young, whether those kids are fast, slow, whatever. 
And it is developmentally normal for a kid to read later than age 5. Not every kid is ready to read at age 5. [/quote]

I don’t think kids need special skills for immersion. The point is that OP’s child seems to below average already in his native language. As a parent, I’d want my kid to work on his English literacy skills more than enter a language immersion program. [/quote]

This.  Learning another language is great but not at the expense of the essentials which is reading and math.[/quote]

I mean, in many parts of the world, learning multiple languages from the start of school is the norm for all kids. Not something only for advanced kids. Only in the US do we think of it as something special/extra. I’ve got a child with dyslexia in an immersion program. It is not holding her back. [/quote]

Let me guess, your kid is in K, 1st early elementary.

You say learning another language is common in other countries OK but it’s not the norm here.  Kids in immersion do much more work than kids in a traditional classroom.

They need to master the basics, English, math, science, etc.. They also have work on the language - comprehending, speaking, reading, and writing.  Do you speak the language at home?  If not, how are you going to support them when they need help or struggling?  You will need to get a tutor.  As you get higher up in the grades, the expectations, at least at our school, ramps up significantly in the language.  K, 1st is easy, not so much in 3rd, 4th.  And if they are struggling in the language, they will struggle in the core subjects taught in the language due to poor comprehension.

Now imagine that they are struggling with English reading which then would imply weakness in English writing and spelling too. So you have to supplement in these subjects too and try to catch them up. If they were not in immersion, they would be getting twice the instruction.

If they are struggling in math, then you will need to help supplement.  They will struggle even more if they are weak in the language because they won’t understand everything that is being taught.  It becomes a vicious cycle of falling further behind.

Then you kid may resent having to learn the language and don’t want to do anything in the language.

Above is why so many families pull their kids out of immersion.  It’s a lot of work, especially as you get higher up in the grades and the demands and expectations ramp up a lot.  As I said before, the kids who do best are the ones who pick things up easily and quickly in core subjects so they don’t need to spend so much time juggling that and the language.

Of course there are exceptions to everything.  But just know that if your kid is struggling in core subjects and is in immersion, it’s twice the uphill battle to try to catch up.

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