Below are some guidelines for speech/language developmental expectations in school-age children:
By the end of 1st Grade, a child should be able to:
- Follow 2-3 step directions in order.
- Remember information and respond to instruction.
- Retell stories and events in a logical sequence.
- Correctly produce all speech sounds, including the more difficult r, l, and s sounds.
- Be understood nearly 100% of the time, even by new listeners and in new situations.
- Speak fluently without frequent interruptions or repetitions.
- Start conversations, take turns, and stay on topic.
- Produce rhymes.
By the end of 2nd Grade, a child should be able to:
- Answer questions about a grade-level story.
- Understand concept words (e.g., time, location, quality, quantity).
- Use complex sentence structures.
- Use language to inform, persuade, and entertain.
- Read and paraphrase a story.
- Explain key elements of a story.
- Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end.
- Progress to more accurate spelling.
By the end of 3rd Grade, a child should be able to:
- Participate in conversations and group discussions.
- Use appropriate vocabulary.
- Predict, justify, compare, and contrast.
- Include details in writing.
- Identify and correct most spelling errors independently.
- Plan, organize, revise, and edit writing.
By the end of 4th Grade, a child should be able to:
- Understand and use some figurative language.
- Follow written directions.
- Make inferences from written material.
- Write multi-paragraph stories.
By the end of 5th Grade, a child should be able to:
- Plan and make oral presentations geared to a specific audience.
- Maintain eye contact and use appropriate gestures and facial expressions.
- Understand and use root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
- Develop a character and plot.
- Write for a variety of purposes.