Just a couple of observations about two high school students I have worked with recently:

One writes in short, concrete sentences, almost always in the present tense, even when he’s journaling about what he did yesterday.  Is verb tense, particularly when writing, a common problem for kids on the spectrum?

Both of these students (and one is much nearer the Asperger’s end of the spectrum than the other) are capable of reading aloud with inflection if they KNOW what the emotion of the speaker is supposed to be. If there are textual clues that the speaker is angry or happy, they know how that sounds. I find this interesting since one of my students speaks in a monotone generally and reads routinely in a very soft tone.

Yet if the text says something like:

John was angry. “Give me my backpack!” he demanded–both will add appropriate, louder, inflection when reading John’s words.

To get a student with autism to read with inflection, especially the younger ones, perhaps we need to TELL them what the emotion of the speaker is.  They usually won’t infer this from the situation, even though most of us will.  But they know how an angry person sounds if they know he’s angry.  Or a happy person.  Or a sad person.

The more they recognize the different tones of voice, the easier it will be to infer emotions in daily communication.  Perhaps.

Related posts:

1. Inference Cuing: What is the most likely reason for that?
2. Hearing the story in your head: The role of expressive reading
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

It has frequently been observed that children on the autism spectrum  tend to be concrete and literal thinkers who have difficulty with abstract concepts like inferring a character’s unstated motive.  When reading fiction, the concrete thinkers will focus narrowly on the minute physical details and often miss the “big picture.”

Fernando’s red jacket flapped in the wind as he raced on his new bicycle down Maple Street.  Ignoring the stop sign at the end of the block, Fernando ran straight into the side of a passing city bus.  When he woke up he heard a siren and realized he was in the back of an ambulance.

The child with autism should have no difficulty telling you that Fernando’s jacket was red, and his bike was new.  He probably would be able to report that Fernando ran into a bus.

Yet some may not recognize that the person in the ambulance is Fernando, because Fernando’s name is not stated in the last sentence, only the pronoun “he” is used (an example of anaphora).  Children with autism frequently will not connect one sentence to the next, even within paragraphs.

While it may seem to us both obvious and critically important for the reader to recognize that Fernando is injured, the child with autism may make no such connections without coaching.  They do not always think about the ramifications of coats flapping in the wind, bicycles speeding, and stop signs ignored.  The visual image of a child’s body striking the side of a moving bus does not automatically come to them, or necessarily suggest to them an ambulance ride to the hospital, or worse.

Anaphoric cuing (about which there are several articles on this blog) teaches the child to stop when he gets to anaphora and ask himself who or what, or where or when or why questions to focus his attention on the meaning of what he is reading by identifying the referent words.  The reader needs to think about who is waking up in an ambulance, and why.  Was Fernando napping or was he knocked unconscious?

Inferring motive

A character’s motives may be similarly difficult for the child with autism to recognize, even when they seem clear to most readers.

Bob’ s favorite green Boston Celtics hat was missing from his locker!  He looked up and down the hallway and spotted George wearing a green hat!  Bob ran down the hall, shoved George against the wall, and grabbed the hat off his head.  As Bob was walking away, he noticed that the green hat he was holding said Dallas Mavericks.

The child with autism might know that Celtic hats are green, might know Bob’s was missing, might know the hat George was wearing was green, and yet may be stumped by the question:  Why did Bob shove George and take his hat? Since the text does not explicitly say that Bob suspected George of taking his hat, the reader with autism might not make this seemingly obvious inference.

How to infer state of mind, emotion, or motive from a character’s actions is something that must be taught patiently to young readers with autism.  Often the teacher or aide must have to learn how to recognize themselves when they are inferring so they can guide the student to a similar inference.

What is most likely?

When a character is described as frowning and speaking loudly, we may infer “anger” without even being aware we made an inference.

Julia waited on the front porch of Elizabeth’s house for 15 minutes.  When Elizabeth finally came outside, Julia frowned and asked loudly, “Can we go now?”

The concrete thinker, if asked, might surprise us with the number of other possible (if implausible) explanations for speaking loudly while frowning.  They can always come up with fanciful scenarios (“maybe a caterpillar crawled in her ear“) which have no connection whatsoever to the text.  They may need to be prompted to focus their thinking on what is most common and most likely under the circumstances of the story.

• What are the most common reasons why someone would do that?

• What is the most likely reason this character is doing that, considering what just happened to her?

Keeping track of details is a strength

When instructing a whole classroom of students, most of which do not have autism, on a long piece of fiction one may discover an advantage that many readers with autism have: they can often keep track of a surprising number of minor characters and minute details, even if they have difficulty connecting them.

A high school student with autism, having studied an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet for several weeks in class, was watching the Zefferelli film and laughed to himself when Romeo’s servant, Balthazar, passes a monk on a donkey while on his way to Mantua to tell Romeo of Juliet’s apparent death. “Friar John” the student said.  Friar John was not named in the version of the play studied.  The name was mentioned once in class weeks before.

I have also observed (to my surprise) that some children with autism are as capable as other kids of learning the meaning of idioms such as “nose to the grindstone” or “sick as a dog” or “hold your horses.”  In fact, they may even recognize the humor in certain idioms, once they learn the meaning, that others more familiar with the terms may overlook.  Drawing an absurd picture to illustrate a witty idiom may be great fun for these children.

Related posts:

1. FAQs about anaphoric cuing and reading comprehension
2. Anaphoric cuing: Asking clarifying questions
3. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?

By Sara Finegan

Students on the autism spectrum don’t tend to make inferences deliberately.  It’s not that they never make them; they just aren’t aware of it and it needs to be brought to their attention before we can teach them to transfer the skill from their own lives to the written word.  It’s important to treat inferencing instruction as a process, not a project.  By this I mean that we should be patient, slow, and consistent in implementing some sort of practice of making inferences into our instruction all year long.

There is no Language Arts unit called “Making Inferences.”   There is a gradual unveiling of the skill and ongoing work in strengthening it as a reading habit.  Reading comprehension strategies should not be taught in isolation, or in compact curricular plans.  Reading comprehension is a set of practices which layer, one upon the other, to create an overlay for any book we read.

First Steps

I never begin my instruction in making inferences by teaching it.  I begin with stories.  During our early morning housekeeping, I may tell a quick anecdote about something that happened and see what conclusions the kids can draw from it.  Essentially, my stories are about a person or an event which is described but not named.

I may talk about how my daughter called me in a panic asking for the name of a good car repair shop, and see if the kids would infer that she either had an accident or that her car had broken down. I might describe the man whose office I visited, and his spotless white coat and that stethoscope he wore around his neck, and see if the kids would infer that I was at the doctor.  Or, I might talk about how my cats had suddenly started scratching themselves like crazy, and see if they would suggest that they have fleas.  Invariably, someone in the class will raise his or her hand and make a suggestion that involves an inference about the story I’m telling. And when they do, I say “excellent inference!” and proceed to restate the event, the setting, or the person I’m talking about.  It takes less than five minutes to accomplish this task, and the kids soon learn to be paying attention to my words in order to “guess” what’s going on.  Very casual, very informal.

Awareness of their inferences

The informality does not belie the purpose, which is to familiarize the kids with the concept of making inferences and an awareness when they make them. When we are supporting readers with autism in developing comprehension strategies, it’s important, though not crucial that they be able to identify the strategy and when they are doing it. (Why is it important? I believe that the children I teach need to develop an awareness of the way they think and learn. This prepares them for reflection on their progress and goals, and allows them to participate more fully in their own instruction.) The first step in teaching kids to make inferences as they read is to tell them what an inference is, and show them that they already use it to some extent in their lives.

About a month into any given school year, I add a quick routine to my morning instruction. On a series of index cards, I write word groups that are intended to provoke an inference.  I will show the kids two or three of the cards in the morning, and perhaps two or three in the afternoon, right after lunch and before we start social studies.  I simply place a card on the document camera and wait for the kids, individually or in groups, to shout out what they think the words have in common.  As with my anecdotes, the word groupings always have to do with an event or a character or a setting.  I keep it simple, and try to incorporate the kids’ own background knowledge as I write the word cards.

Tip: I have, on occasion, begun with picture cards instead of words. For a few days, I’ll show kids cards as described above, only the cards will have 3-4 pictures instead of words. Then I’ll move to word cards.

During this time, some fabulous and thoughtful discussions usually begin about the words and their connotations.  I push kids to justify their choices and explain them to the rest of the class.  If there’s a disagreement, we talk about it. My role is as facilitator, and thus I do not intervene with the right or wrong answer, but simply ask open-ended questions to help guide the kids to a deeper discussion.

Teacher: Ok, who will read the words? Sammy?

Sam:  Cake, flowers, white dress, church

Teacher:  Terrific. Who has an inference?

Jaylin:  Birthday party.

Sam:   No way.  It’s a wedding.

Jaylin:   But there’s cake.

Brianna:   I put quinceanera.

Teacher:  Three ideas! Let’s discuss! Jaylin, talk about your inference that it’s a birthday party. Tell me the words you used for that inference.

Jaylin:  Cake, ‘cause there’s cake at a birthday party. And flowers.  And a nice dress.

Teacher:  Oh, so you understood that people dress up for a birthday party, sure.

Jaylin:  Yeah. And there’s presents.

Teacher:  Oh, you used the word “presents”? Is that on the list?

Jaylin:  No.

Teacher:  Brianna, talk about your idea that it’s a quinceanera.

Brianna:  Girls wear white dresses and you can have communion at church, and they decorate with flowers.

Teacher:  Oh, so you used the word church and the white dresses and the flowers to come up with that. Have you been to a quinceneara?

Brianna:  My sister had one.

Sam:  But you don’t go to church. It’s just a party.

Teacher:  That is true in many Mexican communities, Sammy. But other cultures, like the Puerto Rican culture, often have a religious service before the party.

Sam:  Oh.

Teacher:   Sam, talk about why you think it’s a wedding.

Sam:   Because the girl wears a white dress and it’s in a church. You don’t have a birthday party in a church.

Jaylin:  Oh, yeah.

Teacher:  Ok, so Jaylin, are you adjusting your ideas now?

Jaylin:  Yeah.  He’s right, they don’t do birthday parties in the church.  I forgot that word.

Teacher:  Well, what about Brianna’s inference?

Brianna:  My sister had hers and we all went to church first.

Teacher:  So no wonder you thought “quinceneara” when you saw those words! Well, maybe we need more information to determine which inference is more reasonable. What word could we add, Sam, to make it clear that it’s a wedding?

Sam:  Wedding.

Teacher:  Well, without saying that.  How about, say, “bride” or “ring”?

Sam:   Yeah, that’s good.

Teacher:  Brianna, what word could we add to show that it’s a quinceanera?

Brianna:  I don’t know.

Teacher:  Anyone have an idea?

Stuart:  What if we say “Mexican”?

Teacher:  Do only Mexicans celebrate quinceneara?

Brianna:  No.

Teacher:  Hmmmm. Ok. Well, is there a number or a word we could use?

Brianna:  15?

Teacher:  Ohhhh. 15. Why?

Brianna:  Because that’s how old you are when you have it.

Teacher:  Oh, ok. So if we add 15, does that make people think it’s a quinceneara?

Students:  Yes.

Teacher:  And since the 15 is not on the card, what can we reasonably infer?

Brianna:  I think it’s a wedding.

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Continued: Be sure to click on the next page below!

Related posts:

1. The problem of the read-aloud
2. Autism and hyperlexia, part 1: Anaphoric cuing?
3. Fiction with a purpose (but one at a time)