Redshirting Advice from Providence Children’s Academy
There’s no one on this planet that understands your child better than you do. However, the problem that many parents have is whether or not they should red-shirt their child. Redshirting a child means that you’ll wait an extra year before enrolling your child in kindergarten. Parents usually have this dilemma when their child’s birthday is close to the specific education providers’ cut-off date. At Providence Children’s Academy we have the knowledge and experience to provide you with information that can help when making the right decision. Here are the pros and cons of redshirting your child:
Advantages of redshirting
One benefit of redshirting your child is that they’ll have longer to refine important social skills such as sharing, listening, and taking turns. Another year in a pre-school program will ensure that your child will be able to follow basic directions and will be able to separate from you without anxiety or temper tantrums. An understanding of these simple things will ensure that your child will adapt well in a kindergarten class.
The schooling system has changed drastically in the last decade or so, it has become more focused on academics regardless of the grade that your child is in. Starting school a year later will ensure that your little one is ready to learn to read, write, and even do simple mathematics. If your child isn’t ready for this they will end up angry and discouraged, which could become problematic as it may lead to a refusal to learn at school and a dislike of school.
These days, teachers expect a lot more from students, regardless of age. If your child’s fine-motor skills are not up to standard, they will have a difficult time in class. Things such as the ability to tie his or her own shoelaces, cutting and pasting, coloring and even the way he holds a pencil needs to be taken into account; teachers expect children to be able to do these things with little to no help on their part.
Disadvantages of redshirting
There are a few cons associated with redshirting your child that you will need to take into consideration. For example, there will be some children starting school at the age of 4 and children who are redshirted will start almost 2 years later when they’re 6. This large age gap can lead to a challenging time for the teacher and the students as the mental, emotional, and physical capacity of the students differ across a spectrum that may be too broad for the teacher and kids to overcome and could lead to learning discrepancies.
On the other hand, starting school early will help you unmask any learning disabilities your child may have. The teacher should be trained to spot various special needs of a student. Any form of speech impediment or motor skills problem will be detected a lot sooner in a classroom environment where corrective action can be taken.
Your child may also develop faster than their peers if they are older than them, and this may cause social problems when they are older.
There are pros and cons to every decision that you make with regards to your child. But at the end of the day, you only want what’s best for them. For some children it is beneficial to start school at an early age and for others it may be better to keep them back a year – every child is different. For more help with deciding whether you should redshirt your child or not, talk to the professionals at Providence Children’s Academy.