What side of the line does your child fall?

Sitting at his son’s all-star hockey game one winter’s morning, a father noticed a curious trend on the team’s roster. The majority of the kids had birthdays in the first three months of the year. This prompted him to investigate further and he found that the vast majority of professional Canadian hockey players had birthdays in the first quarter of the year. Does it have something to do with an astrological sign, that those born under that sign are just better athletes? No! The trend is the same in many other sports and academic arenas. What causes this? The cut-off date of when a child can enter a program! In Canada, the cut-off date is Jan. 1st. So if your child has a birthday in January, he is one of the oldest children on the team and his maturity, even by six-months, makes him stand out and be picked for advanced teams. Because he was picked for the advanced team, he will receive better coaching and continue to advance ahead of his peers, and this advantage continues to widen year after year. It is called accumulative advantage and it can have a HUGE impact on the child’s potential for future success.

On research study found that among fourth graders, the oldest children scored somewhere between four and twelve percentage points better than the youngest children. So, the oldest child may score in the eightieth percentile of a proficiency exam while the youngest scores in the sixty-eighth percentile, placing the older child in gifted classes year after year while the youngest child lags behind. Initially, this difference is primarily due to maturity differences, but year after year as the oldest child continues to receive better education and opportunities, the difference is based on many other factors. Another study found that the majority of teenagers who attempt suicide have birthdays on the latter side of the cut-off date! The years of discouragement from being “behind” their peers can cause serious consequences!

Therefore, it is imperative to pay attention to cut-off dates and make sure your child is one of the oldest kids in the class or on the team rather than the youngest. If you find your child is one of the youngest in his or her class, and they still are in primary school, it may be beneficial to hold that child back. I have a client who did this with their son when he was in sixth grade. They had to make a move to another city and had him repeat the grade so that he would get on the “right” side of the line. He is thriving now.

For further information, read chapter one in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers titled, “The Matthew Effect.” The book is an excellent read for parents of children of any age, but especially for those with young children.