A parent recently asked me if she should delay registering her son for kindergarten. She thought he had learning problems that would create problems in kindergarten. My response was that the research, though insufficient and contradictory, didn’t support delay. Here’s a sample of the research findings:
The results of the current study … indicate that delayed kindergarten entrance [called academic red-shirting] is not associated with better academic achievement among children with learning disabilities…. Academic red-shirting does not appear to function as an intervention, in and of itself, that will compensate for a child having a learning disability. The practice of academic red-shirting, by itself, should not be considered an intervention for a child with a learning disability. (Barnard-Brak, 2008, p. 50).
