I think the article misses the boat on what for me is the most important reason to hold a kid back - social maturity. While I didn't mind being one of the youngest in my class at the time, and academically it certainly wasn't an issue, I was a late developer, looked young for my age and I think that socially, it was tougher for me due to being so young.

My daughter was the youngest in her preschool, and somewhat shy in groups, so when it came time for kindergarten, she went to a "transitional kindergarten" program at our public school, and then went to kindergarten the next year. I believe it was absolutely the right thing for her and it had nothing to do with wanting her to have an academic advantage. It was all about having social confidence. In my opinion, the social experiences of elementary school are far more lasting than the academic ones.

It was a great program, with a small class with lots of individual attention. It was marketed for kids with Fall birthdays. As it was explained, our town had recently decided to switch from a Decmber cutoff for kindergarten to a September cutoff becuase they felt that the kids with Fall birthdays were not quite up to the rest of the class and that allowing them another year to develop was the right thing.. The irony is that a few years later, my son's friend, whose birthday was in July repeated kindergarten, on the recommendation of the teachers, with the same line of reasoning, that he wasn't "quite ready". So making the cutoff earlier created something of a moving target.