Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

Emma Robinson

Help your child to make inferences when reading

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Inferencing – the ability to join the dots or to read between the lines – is a key life skill.

In this week’s infographic, our speech pathologist, Emma Robinson, outlines what we can do to help students of all ages to learn how to do it.

1. Inferencing is the ability to combine: (a) what we already know (our world knowledge); and (b) what a text says, to generate meaning about the text.

2. Generating inferences is a key part of understanding what we read. Inferencing is needed to analyse and solve problems, and to think critically: key life skills.

3. As students progress at school, the ability to generate inferences becomes more important.

4. We can help students to make their own inferences by:

  • modelling how we do it out loud;
  • teaching them common text structures;
  • practicing answering and generating questions about what we read;
  • activating prior knowledge of information related to what we read; and
  • explicitly teaching evidence-based strategies e.g. the ‘ACT and Check Strategy’ and the ‘Why technique’.

5. The ACT and Check Strategy involves a few steps:

  • Asking a question about the sentence/text.
  • Considering the text.
  • Thinking about what you know and making educated guesses.
  • CHECKing the accuracy of your educated guesses as you read more of the text.

6. The ‘Why technique’ (also known as ‘elaborative interrogation’) involves asking yourself ‘why?’ questions several times as you read a text and forcing yourself to answer them.

7. For lots more detail on helping students to improve their inferencing skills, check out our article.

Sources:

(1) Murza, K. (Presenter), (n.d.). Supporting Students’ Inference Generation Reading [Webinar]. Medbridge: https://bit.ly/3qacsyr.

(2) Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J., & Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1) 4-58.

(3) Freed, J. & Cain, K. (2017). Assessing school-aged children’s inference-making: the effect of story test format in listening comprehension. International Journal of Communication Disorders, 52(1), 95-105. 

Related articles:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Parents of children aged 6 – 12 years: 11 practical ideas to increase your child’s participation and communication skills

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In this, our fourth infographic on functional communication, our speech pathologist Emma Robinson, outlines 11 practical ideas parents of children aged 6-12 years can use to increase their child’s participation and communication skills.

  1. Learning new things (but not to be helpless): Increase opportunities for learning to occur through independent or supported completion of self-care tasks (e.g. getting dressed, brushing teeth), chores (e.g. making beds, laying the table, cleaning rooms), routines (e.g. for homework and bedtimes), and activities in real life situations.
  2. More unstructured play. Encourage children to play with siblings, cousins, neighbours’ children, including older and younger children, and extended family members. You can read more about play: here.
  3. More inclusion: Increase opportunities for your child to befriend and interact with peers by attending the local school, and taking part in after-school, and vacation programs.
  4. More participation: Involve your child in age-appropriate family, cultural and religious practices, and expect your child to fulfil obligations that are part of such practices.
  5. More teamwork: Encourage your child to join local sports teams (e.g. soccer, basketball, netball) and interest groups (e.g. drama, bushwalking, art, chess, music, Scouts, technology, computer-game, or youth groups).
  6. More choice-making: Encourage children to make their own choices (e.g. between chores, about topics for speeches, characters for Book Week, extracurricular activities, and to make difficult ethical decisions and trade-offs).
  7. More initiative:  Encourage your child to take action to achieve their wants and goals (e.g. by making enquiries at local shops, researching gifts for others, self-study, extra training for sports).
  8. More accountability: Support children to understand the consequences of their decisions and actions, setting clear boundaries, with proportionate and consistent consequences for breaking rules and letting others down.
  9. Adjust when necessary: Some services/activities may need to be adjusted so that tasks are in line with your child’s skills. Keep materials age-appropriate. Remember, finding a way for your child to finish the task is more important than whether it is done ‘normally’ or with 100% accuracy.
  10. Expect more for others: Give your child lots of opportunities to help others at home and in the local community (e.g. in community gardens, charity drives and works). Set high expectations!
  11. Strengthen social and relationship skills: If needed, access intervention, e.g. speech pathology and occupational therapy, to help your child to understand others’ perspectives, to communicate their wants and needs, understand personal boundaries, and to reflect on emotions and interactions.

Key source:

National Disability Insurance Scheme (2014). Report of the Independent Advisory Council to the National Disability Insurance Scheme: Reasonable and Necessary Support across the Lifespan: An Ordinary Life for People with Disability. Examples our own.

Related infographics:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Planning a play date for your child during the school holidays?

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Why arrange a play date? 

Play develops motor skills, construction skills, symbolic pretend play, problem-solving, negotiation, reasoning skills, social language skills, independence, creativity and risk-taking in a safe environment.

More importantly: it’s fun!

Here’s an evidence-based list of toys to get kids talking and playing with each other:

  • Sandbox (buckets, spades, diggers, dinosaurs)
  • Small figurines (e.g. army, animals, pirates)
  • Dress-ups (e.g. superheroes, knights, princesses, emergency/medical workers)
  • Subject to parents’ views, stylised toy guns, foam bullets and swords
  • Board/talking games (e.g. Snakes & Ladders, Monopoly, Cluedo, Battleship, The Game of Life, Checkers/Chess, Ludo, Guess Who, Hedbanz)
  • Card games (e.g. Fish, Snap, Uno, Old Maid, Memory, Werewolf)
  • Blocks (classic wooden, Castle Logix, Lego, Jenga)
  • A train set (train engines, cars, cabooses, freight, bridges, ramps, tracks, landscapes, stations)
  • A large whiteboard and markers (or blackboard and chalk)
  • Playdough and tools (stampers, rolling pins, moulds) 
  • Small tables and chairs, blankets and cushions (imaginary forts, castles, secret bases, ‘cover’)  
  • Sports equipment (balls, hoops, cone markers)

Sources:

(1) Gray, P. (2017). What exactly is play, and why is it such a powerful vehicle for learning?. Topics in Language Disorders, 37(3), 217-228.

(2) Parsons, L., Cordier, R., Munro, N., & Joosten, A. (2019). The feasibility and appropriateness of a peer-to-peer, play-based intervention for improving pragmatic language in children with autism spectrum disorder. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(4), 412-424.

Related articles:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

Key behaviours to look for in the pragmatic (social) language development of children aged 0-5 years

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Last week, thanks to Cherie, we looked at some key pragmatic language behaviours of 5-11 year olds.

This week, in our third evidence-based infographic, our Speech Pathologist Emma Robinson takes us further back to look at key social language milestones for 0-5 year olds. 

Related infographics:

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

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