Think About It – inferencing and reasoning (Team Licence)

Inferencing is a difficult skill to achieve for many children, but particularly for those with Developmental Language Disorder and autistic spectrum disorder for example. This is because inferencing involves complex and abstract processes such as: –

• Understanding implicit information
• Understanding cause and effect
• Recognising the emotions and motives of other people
• Dealing with a variety of outcomes of a situation
• Accepting the ‘point of view’ of other people

The National Curriculum programme of study for English reflects the importance of spoken language and recognises that it underpins the development of reading and writing. The ability to make inferences is a key target at each level of the Reading Comprehension sections.

This set of resources includes sets of charming illustrations, each with questions to target children’s ability to respond to abstract questions.

Many children will find it difficult to respond to abstract questions.The pack therefore describes the method of breaking down the questions into ‘small steps’, supported by visual cues such as mapping or thought webs.

There are 24 different large, full colour pictures. Examples of the pictures and associated questions include:

‘This isn’t my cup of tea’

• How does Grandma know it’s not her cup of tea?
• Does Grandma like the tea she is drinking? How do you know?
• Grandad takes sugar in his tea…but Grandma doesn’t. What do you think has happened?
• What will Grandad do with his tea now?
• What will Grandma do with her tea now?
• What could Grandma and Grandad do to stop them getting their cups of tea mixed up?
• If you put sugar in soup, how would that taste?
• If you put sugar on strawberries, how would that taste?
• How do you feel when you eat or drink something that tastes horrible? What might you do?
• What should you ask someone when you make them a cup of tea?>

‘I don’t think I want to watch this’, said Mikey

• Why do you think that Mikey doesn’t want to watch this film?
• How do we know he’s feeling frightened?
• Have you ever seen a film that frightened you? What was it about?
• Do you think that little children should watch scary films? Why not?
• Mikey is only six years old. Think of some films that he would enjoy. Why would he enjoy them?
• Mikey might have bad dreams when he goes to sleep. What would make him feel happier when he goes to bed?
• Some people think that if children watch films with a lot of fighting in them, it makes them more likely to fight in the playground. Do you think that’s true?

Aims:

• Developing inferencing and verbal reasoning;
• Taking differing views into account;
• Extending ideas in light of discussion.

Age Range: KS1 – KS2, 6yrs. – 11yrs.

Format: PDF file 54 pages, 5 pages of instructions and strategies, 24 pages of colour illustrations plus black and white line drawings of all the illustrations. Available as a download.

Snippet: Upgrade your account to send specially selected extracts of this resource, via our website, to parents and carers for homework exercises. The snippets for this resource include engaging illustrations and suggested questions to promote verbal discussion. For example:

• ‘This isn’t my cup of tea’, said Gran. How does Gran know it’s not her cup of tea? Grandad takes sugar in his tea…but Grandma doesn’t. What do you think has happened? If you put sugar in soup, how would that taste?
• ‘Gosh, Danny! You must really like football’, said Emma. How does Emma know that Danny likes football? Sometimes, people who support different football teams, argue with each other. Why do you think they do that?
• ‘You mustn’t eat so many sweets’, said Mrs. Kumar. Mrs. Kumar has found that Mikey has two bad teeth. What might she do? What could Mikey do to make sure his teeth stay nice and strong?