Kindergarten delay may prove positive

Justin Lemieux will be sitting out junior kindergarten this fall. And maybe senior kindergarten next year. Why?

His December birthday would make him the youngest kid in the half-day class, says his mom, Elisabeth Napolano, and he’s already behind older kids born the same year. “My son is not at the same maturity level as our neighbours’ kids who are born in January,” says his mother of Mississauga, Southern Ontario, Canada. “He’s a foot shorter. Also emotionally, he doesn’t have the same attention span.”

There’s new evidence out this week that suggests she’s making the right decision. 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. Read the article in The Globe and Mail online.