8-Year-Old Speech and Language Development Milestones:

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)

Speech Sound Resource Page

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).

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.