Child psychiatric disorder and relative age in school year: Holding back may cause more harm

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7426.1286-a

BMJ 2003;327:1286 (29 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7426.1286-a

Letter

Child psychiatric disorder and relative age in school year

Holding back may cause more harm

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Radecki's perspective from the United States (previousletter) on the problem of age and psychiatric disorder in childrendiscussed by Goodman et al is interesting.¹ In Australia holdingback is very much encouraged by education authorities and themedia and is deemed almost mandatory for boys, who are regardedas suffering far more disadvantage from "early" school starts.

In New South Wales the school year begins in late January, anda child may start if he or she has turned 5 or will turn 5 bythe end of June, but many are held back until the followingyear, resulting in a possible age spread of 18 months in a singleclass. This situation seems to put even more emphasis on theneed for teachers to be aware of the differing ability levelsin their classroom. However, it is parents and parental attitudeto schooling which are generally . . . [Full text of this article]

Robyn M Greenwell, parent

39 Gordon Avenue, Newcastle, Hamilton, NSW 2302, Australia stmcg@fl.net.au

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Child psychiatric disorder and relative age within school year: cross sectional survey of large population sample: Robert Goodman, Julia Gledhill, and Tamsin Ford
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