Are there other ways of building inferential thinking abilit

Dyslexia should have no impact on his ability to think inferentially. (Many disagree thinking dyslexia is an advantage.) Developing and measuring such skills is difficult, especially with highly inferential individuals who think outside the box. Rigid thinkers tend to punish their students’ inferences with regularity - thus conforming their thinking to the orthodox.

My advice would be to continue asking probing questions which demand inferential thinking. Simple inference questions would be “What would you do if?…..Why do you think?…..If, then….

Then moving to a next more difficult step - Why didn’t Angus like the English?

Finally, if you can get there - what I call the inferential/intuitive - How do you believe Angus might have felt about Trevor if Angus had been born in Boston? (Boston was chosen because it has the potentials of an Irish-American population - something not included in the info.

Sorry to have only responded briefly to what obviously demands more.

Ken

Making inferences is a fancy way of saying “drawing conclusions.”

Ken’s example is fabulous; use it in lots of genres: movies, life-situations, stories you read to him/her.

For kids twelve (or so) and older, also point out ways that logic is faulty: bandwagoning, red-herrings, and the like. Educator’s Publishing Services has some good books on that subject. Take the adult idea and pare it down if you must.

I really like the Visualizing and Verbalizing Program by Lindamood Bell. It’s an easy program to learn and administer and can be done whenever chunks of time are available. After the basic lessons, it moves into inferential thinking. I’ve used it very successfully with kids of all ages. The story book that goes with the program is helpful. I know you wanted something that’s not really reading, but I thought I’d pass this on anyway because it really gets at what you are talking about.

Forgot to think about V & V…and it’s so good for building these skills in a conversational way. I think all kids need these 12 structure words, though.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Many of these ideas we do intuitively when we read together, but you helped me understand what we were doing. This is something my husband and I can do with him without subjecting him to more therapy!! He’s only 8, and we are concentrating on decoding right now, but as things develop he may end up doing v/v. Thanks!