For Other Professionals
Should Late-Birthday Kids Sit Out a Year?
The Globe and Mail (Ontario, CA)
Two new studies in the United States, which combed through large sets of health and education data, show that children born just before kindergarten age cut-off dates — which range from September to December — were statistically much more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder than their older class peers. "Grouping children in 12-month age groups is almost arbitrary the way it's set up," says researcher Melinda Morrill, an economist at North Carolina State University. "In kindergarten, a one-year age difference is 20 percent of a child''s life." And it may lead to teachers unnecessarily flagging children with behavioral issues.
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