Helping Your Child Develop Inferencing Skills in Speech Therapy

Inferencing is the ability to "read between the lines"—to figure out what’s happening even when it’s not directly stated. It’s an essential skill for reading comprehension, social understanding, and everyday problem-solving.

In speech therapy, we build inferencing step by step:

• Real-life examples: We start with simple, relatable scenarios. For instance, if someone is wearing a coat and gloves, it’s probably cold outside.

• Visuals and videos: Wordless picture books and short clips help children practice identifying emotions, predicting outcomes, and understanding events using visual clues.

• Guided questioning: We break down the process using prompts like, “What do you see?”, “What do you think is happening?”, and “Why do you think that?”

• Social situations: We also use inferencing to build social awareness—helping kids interpret facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.

With practice, children learn to make thoughtful guesses, support their reasoning, and better understand both stories and social cues.

Author: Brittany Schoellkopf M.S., CCC-SLP