Talking 11-17 years
Talking 11-17 years
This is a guide to how children develop their talking and understanding of words between 11-17 years.
Language development at this stage is a gradual process. Changes still take place but they are harder to see. Children need to learn to develop relationships and join in social activities on their own.
What to expect between the ages of 11 and 14
At this stage children will:
- Use longer sentences; usually 7-12 words or more
- Build their sentences using a range of conjunctions or joining words, such as 'meanwhile', 'however', 'except' so that they can convey complex ideas
- Know how to use sarcasm. Know when others are being sarcastic to them
- Be able to change topic well in conversations
- Use more subtle and witty humour
- Show some understanding of idioms, such as “put your money where your mouth is!”
- Know that they talk differently to friends than to teachers and be able to adjust this easily
- Understand and use slang terms with friends. They keep up with rapidly changing ‘street talk’.
What to expect between 14 - 17 years
As they get older, young people can:
- Follow complicated instructions
- Know when they haven’t understood. They will ask to be told again or have something specific explained
- Easily swap between ‘classroom’ talk and ‘break-time’ talk
- Tell long and very complicated stories.
How to support your child
There are lots of things you can do to encourage young people at this stage:
- Encourage opportunities to talk without making them feel under pressure
- Use opportunities for chatting, like mealtimes
- Give everyone a chance to talk about their day, including you
- Help by explaining any words or phrases that they don’t understand
- Show that you are interested by making time to listen.
Things to look out for
At this stage, children should have well-developed speech and language skills. At this age, a child might have delayed language if they:
- Have difficulty giving specific answers or explanations
- Have difficulty sequencing their ideas in the right order
- Are better at understanding individual instructions than group instructions
- Find it difficult to understand language where the meaning isn’t clearly stated e.g. be able to infer that someone wants to close the window or turn up the heating when they say ‘It’s a bit chilly in here!’
- Find long and complicated instructions hard to understand
- Have trouble learning new words
- Take a long time to organise what they are going to say or write
- Take things too literally. For example, “I’ll be back in a minute”
- Have difficulty taking turns in conversations
- Talk to teachers and friends in the same way.
Helpful resources
