7–8 years old: Cognitive and linguistic development

Cognitive development refers to the acquisition of skills such as memory, attention, reasoning, and planning. These skills allow children to manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours, in addition to helping them store information, solve problems, exercise judgment, and understand the world around them. Cognitive development also includes language development, which is a child’s ability to communicate, understand speech, and express themself verbally. For school-aged children, this also includes reading and writing comprehension.

Cognitive and language development: 7–8 years old

Cognitive skills

At this age:

• Your child is better at discerning what other people (e.g., their friends, their parents, other adults) are thinking and feeling in social situations. They can put themself in other people’s shoes, which makes them better at resolving conflicts and empathizing.
• They can formulate hypotheses and imagine what-if scenarios. For example, they might think about and guess the ending of a story.

• They draw “transparent” characters or objects (e.g., houses with see-through walls).
• They can solve simple math problems (article in French), such as those involving basic addition and subtraction. They also understand the concept of reversibility (e.g., 2 + 3 = 5, 5 − 3 = 2).
• They understand the cause-effect relationship between an action and its consequence, both in daily life and in science experiments.

Little by little, your child will begin to do the following:

• Imagine objects in their mind before creating them (e.g., an airplane made of building blocks) and follow a plan.
• Plan and organize their own daily routines.
• Add and subtract larger numbers.
• Understand the strategies behind magic tricks and card games.
• Understand money better (e.g., recognize that three quarters is worth less than a dollar).

Language skills

At this age:

• Your child’s vocabulary includes words they hear at home and at school, as well as words they read in books.
• They use longer, more complex sentences, which shows that their reasoning is evolving (e.g., “I’m going to play until you tell me it’s been 30 minutes”).
• They can talk about something for increasingly longer periods during a conversation.
• They can tell a story by focusing on the character’s purpose and emotions rather than a series of events.
• They have a better grasp of puns and figurative expressions.
• They can correctly spell approximately 500 words by the end of Grade 2.
• They understand that a noun can be singular or plural.
• They can read simple texts with more fluency.
• They can read a variety of texts, such as stories, songs, articles, and instructions.

Little by little, your child will begin to do the following:

• Get better at imagining what someone they’re talking to might be thinking.
• Learn more vocabulary from the texts they read.
• Read to learn new things.

How can you help your child progress?

Your child is unique and will develop at their own pace. They have strengths and weaknesses and are becoming increasingly self-aware. You can encourage your little one’s cognitive development with these simple everyday actions:

Scientific review: Marie-Ève Bergeron-Gaudin, speech-language pathologist, and Noémie Montminy, doctoral student in psychopedagogy at Université Laval. Research and copywriting: The Naître et grandir team Updated: August 2021

Photo: GettyImages/doble-d