Held back a year?

[Louiselouie0890]

After any advice please!

My son's nursery teacher has asked if she could refer him for language and understanding therapy. She said as he's the youngest of the year she's worried he will struggle in primary school in September. She also said if he was held back a year she wouldn't refer him.

So my question/worries are do I keep him back? Can I keep him back? Wil this be a pattern throughout school as he's being "compared" to the older kids.

I'm glad she wants to help him and no harm can come from help but a part of me is thinking why is a 4 year old being compared to a 5 year old. I could understand if it was ages kids were "moving along" levelling out so to say but at 4?

I don't really know what to do for the best or how to process my thoughts so any help or experience would be greatly recieved
Thank you

If you child is summer born (after 1st April), you can delay their start in reception by a year. Worth talking it through with the nursery to see if they think this is a good idea. It works well for some younger children.

Unfortunately kids are compared to the eldest in the year. Although in theory the curriculum should be accessible.
The writing especially is not achieved by like 1/4 of summer born children.
I would personally want to be referred anyway as s&l can sometimes be asd.
Join flexible admissions for summer borns.
How easy it is to defer depends on the LA and whether it is a LA school/ academy etc. As the HT has an opinion and the admissions authority of the school decides

And i agree eyfs seems to go from by age to now they are 40-60 they are all the same. It's unclear what they should do when or when to worry or help etc.
It makes no sense as 5yo should have acieved it by school. Maybe it's just not very clear for me.

If she is offering to refer him I would take it. A big part of my job is doing speech and language interventions, it is easier with younger children and the wait is very long to get anything put in place.

You can delay their start for a year but please bare in mind this can then mean them missing reception and going straight into year 1, which I think is a bad idea for most children as a lot of learning happens in reception and they would then have to play catch up in year 1, so they are then the youngest in the year AND they've missed an entire year of education.

Thanks for the replies and sadotter you've made a very good point I feel I don't know a lot about it and your info has helped thank you.

I'm 100% following the teachers lead with it I trust her decision she's the expert I'm just a bit confused I suppose and not knowing what's best for him. Its come out of nowhere nothing has ever been mentioned before.

She said his speech is fine it's his understanding that he's struggling with I'm going to speak to her tomorrow to understand more what she means by that so hopefully I'll get some clear answers and make better decisions. I'm sure she means for example when I ask him what snack he had at school he never answers me he tends to repeat the question or just say yeah or mimmick what I've said. His actual speech is fine which is probably why I was a bit sideswiped by it.

A referral to a professional is always a good idea. A speech and language therapist focuses on both expressive and reciprocal language and they’ll be able to give you ideas about how to support him.