{"id":2814,"date":"2018-01-14T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=2814"},"modified":"2018-01-10T18:17:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T18:17:04","slug":"the-struggles-of-relatively-young-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/the-struggles-of-relatively-young-students\/","title":{"rendered":"The Struggles of Young-for-their-Grade Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/AdobeStock_96678045_Credit.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2818\" src=\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/AdobeStock_96678045_Credit-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Relatively young students\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/AdobeStock_96678045_Credit-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/AdobeStock_96678045_Credit-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Several years ago I taught Jacob: an affable high school sophomore notable for his quick wit, his\u00a0impressive height&#8230;and his immaturity. He was, technically speaking,\u00a0<em>goofy<\/em>. Jacob&#8217;s peers noticed, and didn&#8217;t appreciate his antics. (Neither did I.)<\/p>\n<p>When I met his parents for a teacher conference, I commented on his surprisingly juvenile behavior. They exchanged glances, and his mother said: &#8220;Well, he is the youngest student in the sophomore class. He could be a freshman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This news made all the difference to me. I had been fooled by Jacob&#8217;s 6&#8242; 2&#8243; frame. His behavior, odd for a 10th grader, was entirely appropriate for a 9th grader. When I started giving the structure he needed, he calmed down. And grew up.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of the year, he worked with his classmates very effectively.<\/p>\n<h2>The Travails of Relatively Young Students&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>A recent\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/brainblogger.com\/2017\/12\/13\/how-does-starting-school-early-impact-educational-attainment\/\" target=\"_blank\">BrainBlogger<\/a>\u00a0post\u00a0describes\u00a0the Jacobs of the educational world. If a school has a strict cut-off date for a particular grade, then some students will be almost a full year younger than others.<\/p>\n<p>In college, this difference shouldn&#8217;t matter much. After all, 19-year-olds and 20-year-olds should be emotionally and cognitively well matched.<\/p>\n<p>In younger grades, however, that age difference can be huge. The age-appropriate developmental differences between the youngest and the oldest kindergartener might be substantial.<\/p>\n<p>BrainBlogger&#8217;s author&#8211;identified only by her first name Naomi&#8211;outlines the alarming and ongoing consequences of this early developmental gap.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Relatively young students are likelier to be criticized for their immaturity&#8211;as happened with my student Jacob.<\/li>\n<li>They are likelier to be diagnosed with ADHD.<\/li>\n<li>Relatively older students are likelier to be accepted into Gifted programs, even if they&#8217;re not gifted.<\/li>\n<li>Relatively young students are less likely to take the high-stakes exams that shape educational possibilities in some countries.<\/li>\n<li>They are less likely to attend college, and also less likely to graduate from college.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>&#8230;and, some benefits<\/h2>\n<p>At the same time, Naomi is careful to note the complexity of the question.<\/p>\n<p>In the first place, as she writes,\u00a0&#8220;the impact of\u00a0[relative age effects]\u00a0on educational attainment is&#8230;probabilistic not deterministic.&#8221; That is, some younger students will do just fine, even if their group is less likely to do so.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, some research shows the advantages of being at the younger end of a grade&#8217;s age spectrum. For instance, younger students get the message that they need to work harder to succeed as much as their older peers, and so might have a better work ethic.<\/p>\n<h2>Next Steps<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to think more about this complex question, I&#8217;d start by looking over Naomi&#8217;s article. She lays out the research well, and includes sources from many different countries.<\/p>\n<p>In the meanwhile, you&#8217;ve now got a helpful new question to ask. When working with students whose behavior makes you wonder about ADHD, you might start by looking up their age.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If a school has a strict cut-off date for a particular grade, then some students will be almost a full year younger than others.  The age-appropriate developmental differences between the youngest and the oldest kindergartener might be substantial. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[40,39],"class_list":["post-2814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-development","tag-elementary-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2814"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2819,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions\/2819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}