A child is unique in so many ways. Habits, skills, social behavior, and learning abilities are just some of the factors included. Education acceleration primarily talks about gifted, academically talented, and intellectually inclined youngsters. Kids who are ahead of their age when it comes to learning new materials and understanding concepts. There is a great need for attention with these special cases. Children who are gifted with special capacities for learning require a different or added academic program than what is offered in normal school programs. The good thing is, there are a lot of programs that cater these types of children. Pull-out programs, educational enrichments, after school programs and summer classes that feature special course work for these talented kids. Also, there are mentor programs where children are matched with professionals for special learning experiences. Education acceleration is simply placing a child one or more grades ahead with older children. The problem is, there are a lot of questions or concerns regarding this process. Issues that will greatly affect with the child’s future.
Mostly, gifted students excel in areas like mathematics, science or English. With the education acceleration program, they will be given specialized programs to keep with their learning curves. Let’s take for example a child who is relatively advanced in mathematics in his class may be allowed to take courses with older kids in the same subject while keeping his other subjects in his own grade. Another alternative is to have the gifted child tutored, individually or in small groups of children with the same talents, by professors or teachers for advanced learning.
Education acceleration, based on recent studies, have shown that there is no harm for a child who was educationally accelerated, Their grades are higher than those kids, let’s say his peers, who did not accelerate, and their grades can be compared favorably to those older students in the same class. Education acceleration also reported that the accelerated students show heightened interest and enthusiasm for school.
One concern with regard to education acceleration is that the program might create a gap in the child’s knowledge for skipping a grade. Experts believe that because of skipping a grade or levels, the child may encounter unfamiliar materials. Therefore, proper arrangements should be made to cover such materials without causing an effect to the child once encountered. And since gifted children have more talents and can learn quickly, gaps are less likely to happen, especially if proper arrangements were placed in advance.
Another concern with regard to Education Acceleration is the Emotional and Social welfare of the child. This is the main aspect that worries parents and educators alike. In general, children who are at ease socially and well-adjusted before accelerating will have no issues at all. In fact, these children will have two groups of friends, one with the older students and the other with his age-mates.
Children who are withdrawn socially and have difficulties making friends may experience the same issue when placed with older students. On the other hand, there are cases reported in which gifted children is more comfortable with older kids than with kids within his age. This may be true for girls in most cases than boys. The good thing is that teachers in accelerated settings can help the student find a niche with the older kids.