Are August babies doomed to a life of low achievement?
A new study is causing angst for parents of August babies. British researchers have concluded that August babies, who start school younger than their classmates, have lower test scores and less confidence in their learning ability – and the disadvantage persists throughout school. August babies are more likely to be bullied in elementary school and less likely to attend college than their classmates born 11 months earlier, the study found.
“Duh,” says Michele Borba, PhD, a California-based educational psychologist and parenting expert who appears frequently on TODAY. “Obviously, if you’re a year older, you’re going to do better.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a leading British research group, looked at the school records of 48,500 children to come up with their August disadvantage theory. But parents of August babies shouldn’t panic. Birth month is not destiny, according to Borba and other researchers.
Fears of the summer-birthday disadvantage have led some American parents to “redshirt” their kids, holding them back a year before starting kindergarten. The term comes from college sports, where coaches will sometimes delay the start of an athlete’s playing career so that the four years of eligibility is extended, leading to a “fifth year” senior who’s a superior player.
But that doesn’t necessarily transfer to kindergarteners, say Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt, authors of “Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows From Conception to College.” They cite a large study that fifth-graders who are young for their grade score higher on verbal IQ than fourth-graders of the same age. In other words, better to be the youngest in the class than the oldest – just the opposite of what British researchers found.
“Parents want to provide the best environment for their child, but delaying school is rarely the right approach,” they wrote in a recent opinion piece in The New York Times. “The initial redshirt advantage may disappear because children are not on a fixed trajectory but learn actively from teachers — and classmates.”
Borba, a former elementary teacher, says parents need to determine only one thing: What’s best for your child?
“Even the researchers aren’t clear,” she says. “Don’t use your gut instinct or what the neighbor next door is doing. Talk to those who know your child – the preschool teacher, the childcare provider.”
She emphasizes that kindergarten isn’t what it used to be. Today, it’s an academically rigorous environment where 5-year-olds are in class all day, expected to sit for 45 minutes at a time, listening without fidgeting, do worksheets and, yes, even homework. They need to be ready emotionally, physically and academically.
So, whether born in August or earlier, don’t put your 5-year-old in a situation where he can’t succeed. And don’t hold him back just to give him a leg up, or you may risk boredom and an eventual lack of interest in learning.
Are you tempted to hold your child back from kindergarten? Tell us what you think.
Jane Clifford is a Southern California-based writer and mother of four. She fervently believes her payback will be sitting back and watching as they all become parents. She writes about parenting and is editor of The Family Room at www.family-room.org.
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