8-Year-Old Speech and Language Development Milestones:

The following skills are all expected to emerge by the end of 3rd grade (8-9 years old).  Not all children will acquire all of these skills by this age.  If a child is missing a few skills, we generally don’t worry too much.  However, if a child is far off from many of these skills, we like to get them in for a speech/language assessment/evaluation.

This page is recommended as a general guide to give you an ideas of skills you could address within this age bracket.  It is not meant to diagnose a child or provide treatment recommendations.   SLK Hub is for informational and educational purposes only and does not provide medical or psychological advice.

* To view the sources for this information, please scroll to the bottom.  School-age language skills are taken from the Common Core State Standards.  This is a standardized curriculum that is commonly used in the United States.  Not all school curriculums will follow these language skill timelines exactly.

speech therapy kits and activities for eight-year-olds

Speech Therapy Kits & Activities for 8-Year-Olds

Easy activities to teach speech/language skills ~ Included in The Hub

8-Year-Old Speech Milestones (Sound Production)

8-Year-Old speech milestones refer specifically to the sounds that a child is able to speak.  We use the term “speech” to refer to how a child pronounces words, whereas “language” is used to describe how children use those words to create sentences and communicate with those around them.

  • Intelligibility: Is understood all of the time
  • Uses all speech sounds correctly (keep in mind some areas limit the speech sounds that school SLPs can address until later ages)
  • Is no longer be using phonological processes (speech sound error patterns)

8-Year-Old Language Milestones

When we look at 8-year-old language milestones, we are looking at how a child is using words and putting those words together to communicate with those around them.  A lot goes into language skills.  Here is a checklist of the 8-year-old language development milestones.  School-age language skills are taken from the Common Core State Standards.  This is a standardized curriculum that is commonly used in the United States.  Not all school curriculums will follow these language skill timelines exactly.

  • Can ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding and clarify things that are unclear.
  • Can tell or retell real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
  • Can convey ideas and information clearly (with spoken language) by stating a topic, providing details about it, using linking words (like “also” and “but”), and making a concluding statement.
  • Can state opinions (with spoken language) by stating an opinion and providing reasons that support their opinion.
  • Can explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
  • Can form and use different types of nouns, such as regular and irregular plural nouns (cats, children, etc.) and abstract nouns (childhood).
  • Can form and use various types of verbs, including regular and irregular verbs and simple verb tenses (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk).
  • Uses correct subject-verb agreement (“he walks” instead of “he walk”) and pronoun-antecedent agreement (using a pronoun that matches the subject of the sentence) when speaking.
  • Uses possessives when speaking (possessive ‘s and possessive pronouns like “his/her”).
  • Can correctly use comparatives (bigger, faster) and superlatives (biggest, fastest) when speaking.
  • Speaks in a variety of sentence types, including simple (I walk to the store), compound (I walk to the store and she walks to the park), and complex (Since I was out of bread, I walked to the store).
  • Can use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of an unknown or multiple-meaning word or phrase (ex: Can read a sentence and figure out an unknown word based on the rest of the sentence).
  • Understands how a word is broken up into a root word and prefixes/suffixes. Can guess the meaning of an unknown word by looking for familiar roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
  • Can use a beginning dictionary (print or online) to determine or clarify the meaning of a word.
  • Can distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context. (ex: the teacher told the children to “take their seats” but she meant “sit down”).
  • Can distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty (e.g., suspected vs. knew; nervous vs. terrified).
  • Can identify real-life connections between words and their use (describe people who are friendly or helpful).

8-Year-Old Social Skill/Interaction Milestones

Another aspect of 8-year-old speech milestones is how well they can interact with others.  Here are some milestones related to social skills and interaction.

  • Listens well in groups
  • Asks and Answer Questions
  • Stays on topic and introduces new and related topics
  • Tells a shorter version of a story correctly
  • Knows how to talk in different ways in different places. For example, using a quiet voice in the library and an “outside” voice on the playground.
  •  Peer and friend groups take precedence over family
  • Shows increasing independent decision-making and a growing need for independence from family
  • Starts to understand sarcasm and its pragmatic purpose

For more resources on teaching social skills to children, click here.

Activities and Ideas for Boosting Language Skills in Children:

If you are looking for therapy ideas or home activities to boost a child’s language skills, check out all of our resources inside The Hub!

speech therapy kits and activities for eight-year-olds

Speech Therapy Kits & Activities for 8-Year-Olds

Easy activities to teach speech/language skills ~ Included in The Hub

School Language Course Bundle

School Language Courses

Training Videos for How to Teach Language Skills to School-Aged Children

Carrie Clark, Speech-Language Pathologist

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

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