As the school year draws to an end, you may be facing the difficult decision of retention. Maybe your son isn’t reading as smoothly or writing as fluently as his peers? Or maybe your daughter’s “reading” seems fine, but she can’t remember what she has read? And since she is less mature than her peers, maybe she is often ignored by her classmates and, thus, chooses to play with younger children?
There are probably other factors, too, that you are considering regarding retention. Your son’s math skills may be strong, and his physical growth and development may be above average. Maybe you worry that your daughter will enter puberty ahead of her classmates and stick out like a sore thumb.
School districts flip flop on the issue of retention, depending on the prevalent theories at the time. Currently, many districts seem to be in the retention mode. Many kids are referred to us because their parents are hoping to circumvent retention by enrolling with us over the summer. What a difficult decision for a parent to make!
Hailey’s Teachers Recommended Retention
Last spring, Hailey was one of those kids. At the end of her 3rd grade year, her teachers were strongly encouraging her parents to retain her. She could “read” ok, but the information went in one ear and out the other. Hailey could ace her spelling tests, but she wasn’t using those words in book summaries and creative stories.
Hailey was struggling with basic addition and subtraction, but her class had already moved on to multiplication. Hailey frequently stared off into space during class. She wanted to talk about her stuffed animals when her classmates were talking about their iPods.
Her parents had heard the horror stories about kids who were retained, only to have the same academic problems the following year with the additional problem of reaching physical maturation ahead of their peers. Their pediatrician referred them to us to help them make that heart-wrenching decision.
Hailey was Falling Further and Further Behind in School
When we tested Hailey, we confirmed that she could “read” almost anything, but she struggled to understand the BIG IDEAS of the text – making deep inferences. This requires taking characters’ perspectives and figuring out their motives. Even more difficult for Hailey was comprehending factual information like textbooks and articles. Since Hailey had never had any curiosity (or memory) for factual information, her knowledge bank was extremely limited. Without background knowledge, she was already at a disadvantage.
If we didn’t get this problem fixed, Hailey would start middle school with a serious knowledge deficit.
Reading comprehension was not the only concern. Hailey needed her fingers to calculate the simplest math problems. Her fingers were pretty quick for addition and subtraction facts up to 10, but she struggled once she ran out of fingers.
Would a Summer of Intensive Intervention be Enough?
Despite these problems, we are not quick to recommend retention. We encouraged Hailey’s parents to put her in our summer program and make that decision in August, before the next school year.
Over the summer, Hailey learned to make movies in her head, to increase her understanding and enjoyment of books, and to focus on the big ideas of the text like the characters’ feelings and motives, rather than just the facts. We also focused heavily on math. Hailey learned to make a mental number line from 1 to 100 to calculate addition and subtraction facts in her head.
Hailey made huge progress over the summer. She was reading 3rd grade literature with excellent comprehension. She was easily calculating basic addition and subtraction facts.
But was she really ready for 4th grade? Fourth graders are expected to be independent readers and writers, not only of fictional literature, but of social studies and science textbooks as well. Typical 4th graders are writing theme papers. They have mastered their math facts and are expected to be ready for long division.
Would she Always be at the Bottom of her Class?
Did we always want to play this catch up game? Maybe 4th grade wasn’t such a good idea for Hailey.
Fortunately, her parents carefully considered their daughter’s future and made the right decision. They decided to move her to another school and keep Hailey back in 3rd grade.
During Hailey’s second year of 3rd grade, she received all A’s and B’s compared to C’s and D’s the previous year. Here’s how Hailey described the benefits of repeating 3rd grade:
“I think it was a great idea for me to be held back, because I made new friends, my grades improved, and I am more confident. At my old school, my grades were so low that they were at the bottom of the chart. Now, at my new school, my grades are at the top. I am now more confident, I understand perfectly, and I am encouraged to work hard. I even tried out and got the part in a play. That’s why I think I it was a good idea for me to stay back in 3rd grade.”
If you know a family who is debating the retention issue, encourage them to call us at 858.509.1131 or visit our website at www.therapiesforsuccess.com.
Hailey is living proof that retention with intervention works!