Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
By the end of fourth grade, your child should have reached these milestones.
Listening Skills
- Understands information being taught in class
- Bases opinions on facts
- Listens for important details in conversations and stories
Talking Skills
- Talks for a variety of reasons in varying situations
- Understands euphemisms like “raining cats and dogs”
- Participates in discussions with friends and adults
- Provides accurate directions
- Summarizes information in the correct order
- Uses words and ideas from classes like science and math
- Gives an organized speech in front of a group of people
Reading Skills
- Reads fourth-grade-level books with ease
- Reads and comprehends diverse writing including nonfiction and poetry
- Predicts what a character might do or how a story will end
- Tells a shorter version of what he or she reads, including primary details
- Follows written directions
- Takes short, logical notes
- Uses words to learn the meaning of new words (such as identifying what uncover means based on the meaning of cover)
- Uses a dictionary, reference books and online resources as needed
- Thinks about and discusses why an author wrote a book
Writing Skills
- Writes good stories and explanations with several related paragraphs
- Plans a beginning, middle and end before writing
- Covers the main story idea adequately
- Edits writing for grammar, punctuation and spelling (on paper and computer)
- Uses a computer for writing and knows where to find keyboard letters
