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Typical Speech and Language Development at this age

by | 27th June 2019 | Children (7 to 11)

At this age we would typically expect children to:
  •  Use their speech sounds clearly.
  • Start to follow more complex instructions.
  • Understand how words are linked by their meaning .
  • Understand that some words have multiple meanings, e.g. here/hear
  • Ask and respond to how? and why? questions.
  • Use a range of descriptive and emotion words.
  • Use more complicated grammar and join sentences in different ways.
  • Be able to describe their own experiences and sequence events in the right order.
  • Have a better ability to repair conversations if they breakdown.
  • Be less literal in their interpretation .
  • Stick to a topic but happily change if prompted.
  • Use and experiment with different styles of talking with different people.
  • Change the style or politeness of their language to suit the situation and the person they are talking to, e.g. a friend in the street or their headteacher in the corridor.
  • Be aware when someone doesn’t understand and try another way to get the message across.
  • Negotiate with friends and others to resolve issues without relying on adults.
  • Start to understand jokes based on double meanings.