Improving Inferencing Skills in Children

Question

Answer

Inferencing

Remember that inferencing requires taking background knowledge and combining it with the clues you obtain to make a guess or inference to interpret the situation or event. Human beings are always inferring. We infer when we communicate verbally and nonverbally, when we read, when we watch television or movies, when we talk on the telephone, when we email and text. All social situations require inferencing.

Children are always inferencing as well. For instance, children are picking up on clues about the emotional state of their parents by reading their body language (a pointed, shaking finger), listening to their parent's words ("No"), and stern tone. If the child has had that experience before, then they know things are not going well and they need to stop or change their behavior. If the child hasn't had that experience previously they will lack the prior knowledge to make the appropriate inference.

Background Knowledge and Exposure

In helping a five year old child to develop inferencing skills I would start by talking with and exposing the child to a variety of everyday experiences. Children first need prior knowledge to make good inferences and the way to get prior knowledge is to be exposed. Children gain background knowledge through actually going places and doing things that they discuss with an adult. The child also gains background knowledge from talking about books, movies, television, pictures, social interactions etc. For instance, you don't have to ride in an airplane to have prior knowledge about one.

"Think Aloud" Technique

If I had to pick a technique you should use, the technique I would recommend would be the "think aloud" technique. The SLP models his or her own thinking out loud to the child. The SLP would talk about how they take their prior knowledge and combine it with the available clues to develop one or several inferences.

Combine Using the "Think Aloud" Technique and Building Background Knowledge (Activities)

Everday events

As children engage in everyday events such as play, lunch, crafts, chores, etc. use the "think aloud" technique to talk about how others might feel and think. The discussion during these types of interactions might include how others feel and think when people share, compromise, take turns etc. Make sure the discussion includes a description of the clues people use to guess the feelings and thinking of others.

Reading

Use a "think aloud" technique to model the thought process for making predictions using a wordless picture book or any book about a familiar topic. Be sure the book is at the child's comprehension level. Look at the book title and pictures on the cover to make predictions about what the book could be about or what might happen in the book. Explain what clues you used to make your predictions. As you continue looking through the book or reading, stop periodically and discuss with the child what a character might do and what clues there are to support that thinking.

Although predicting and inferencing are different I think the thinking process used to predict is very similar to inferecning and would be helpful. (see note below)

Movies/Television

You can watch a short segment of a movie or television show stopping it after a short time and then use a "think aloud" technique to discuss what happened and what a character might do next or could be thinking or feeling. Talk about the clues you saw that support that thinking.

Summary

I am not in any way trying to indicate you should change your goal for this child since I don't know this child or the child's circumstance. I do, however, want to note that in Ohio the Language Arts Standards do not address the inferential skills of children in Kindergarten. The Ohio Standards do address inferencing in first grade. In first grade, the Ohio Standards indicate that children should know and be able to answer simple inferential questions asked about stories.

I have tried to provide a brief overview here of some very simple, but effective things an SLP could do with a five year old to improve their inferencing abilities. I hope you can see that even though your focus may be inferencing there are so many areas of social communication and cognitive development that will be positively impacted as you use this technique in these types of activities. Thank you for your question. I wish you all the best as you work with this little one.

NOTE: The Difference Between Inferring and Predicting

Predicting and inferencing are not the same. Predictions can be confirmed. A prediction is either correct or incorrect. However, that is not true of an inference. Different inferences can be made by different individuals based on their different background knowledge and each can be correct.

Leslie Holzhauser-Peters, M.S., CCC/SLP holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati and a Master's degree from Miami University. She has thirty years of experience working in the schools in both the special education and general education areas. She began her career as a speech- language pathologist working in a school for children identified as having moderate to severe cognitive deficits and developmental delays. Leslie then went on to become an SLP Supervisor in the schools for fifteen years and is currently working as a curriculum consultant for several school districts. Leslie has presented and co-authored publications on topics that include alternate service delivery models, student observation and intervention, the five communication functions for school success as well as writing and math workbooks for children. Currently she is working with and developing products for children identified with NLD and Aspergers. Her latest publication is entitled, "Making Sense of Children's Thinking and Behavior: A Step by Step Tool to Analyze Children Diagnosed as NLD, Asperger's, HFA, PDD-NOS and other Neurological Differences." (JKP, 2008)