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What Do We Mean by Inferences?
Inferential thinking is being able to ask more than just Who? What? When" Where? and How? It involves teaching your child to ask and answer the question: Why?
He can learn to do this when he adds together: a) The actual facts he reads in the text plus b) The hints and clues he finds inbetween the lines of the text plus c) The conclusions he has previously drawn from his own knowledge, research, and experiences.
So, Dads and Moms, learning to read the text on the page, of course, is A VITAL FIRST SKILL that your child needs to learn if he hopes to delve into independent inferential thinking skills. This is because when children do not have to struggle to read every word on the page, it becomes much easier for them to proceed to the next step of drawing conclusions about the details given in the reading or making inferences based upon what they read inbetween the lines of the reading. Comprehension takes place when children go beyond the standard facts given on a page and proceed to surmise research-based conclusions of their own.
How do children learn to draw those conclusions? Where do these "research-based conclusions come from" especially since we're talking about children, not adults? Children as young as four and five years old as well as older students catching up on their phonogram knowledge can learn to connect bits and pieces of information after listening to their mother read aloud a story by: a) tapping into their own stored knowledge b) tapping into information gained through memories from their own personal experiences c) tapping into stored thoughts they've had through past conversations d) tapping into conclusions they've reached after listening to other stories their parents have read aloud to them.
Reading aloud to your child will not teach your child how to read. However, reading aloud to your child will enable your child to hear numerous words that are not in his regular vocabulary and to hear details read through the oral expression of an adult.
The biggest advantage to oral reading, though, is the opportunity it affords to you, Moms and Dads, to discuss with your child what your child can "imply" or "infer" from the selections that you read.
The opening lines of this classic story read as follows: Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. She went for a walk in the forest. Pretty soon, she came upon a house. She knocked and, when no one answered, she walked right in.
Those wonderful opening lines can open up whole channels of conversations between parents and children, conversations that begin with questions such as:
Why would you think that Goldilocks felt it was safe to walk in the forest alone? How do you think Goldilocks felt about having the name, Goldilocks? What kinds of names do you want to give to your future children, and why? Have you ever seen a house hidden away in a forest? Would you walk into a house if no one answered the door?
It is easy to teach our children inferential thinking when we read aloud to them. However, be prepared for the inevitable, because children who learn to discuss stories with their parents will eventually desire deeply to read those stories and draw those conclusions independently, by themselves. If a child does not receive the proper phonics training to read for himself, he'll give up on reading, he'll give up on books, he'll give up on his own abilities to draw research-based conclusions, he'll lose confidence in his own abilities to express himself, he'll miss out on the adventure of using his thinking skills to help others etc. (Note: Parents, if you are working with an older student, he can learn to read every word on every page. Click here for more information.)
PARENTS, the biggest advantage that a child has through his own ability to read every word on the page is the opportunity it gives him to draw conclusions about the text he reads, both stated conclusions from the text itself and those conclusions that he can infer from the hints and clues hidden between the lines.
This is why The Candy 4WAY Phonics Program was updated for today's parents and children. It is our sincere desire that children be given the necessary reading skills they will need to: a) Read the written pages they will encounter throughout their lives, b) To mesh that information together with their own research, knowledge, and experiences, c) To use that whole package to serve God's purposes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some more
free,
online resources that might help you to draw out these inferences in your
child. Have fun! Drawing inferences is one of the most exciting
adventures your child will ever take!
Phonics
instruction provides an extraordinary environment for the easy learning and
practical application of several elements of formal
logical analysis. These are:
Writers often do not state the way
a character feels explicitly. Instead, writers will include details about
how a character acts and readers must use these details to make inferences
about the character’s emotions. To see a fun
site that explains more about how to do this,
click here.
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