Supporting Students' Inference Generation

12-Month Subscription

Unlimited access to:

Thousands of CE Courses
Patient Education
Home Exercise Program
And more

Subscribe Now

First Chapter Free Buy Course

Inference generation in reading and social contexts is critical for college and career success. However, many of the students speech-language pathologists serve have difficulty with the high-level skill of inference generation in reading. Students with pragmatic language deficits often struggle with generating inferences about the underlying meaning of a conversational exchange. Similar cognitive processes are used to generate inferences socially and in text which is why many students on our caseload struggle with both. These courses will provide speech-language pathologists with foundational knowledge about inference generation they need along with the evidence-based tools for targeting inference generation to best support the students they serve.

Meet your instructor

Kimberly Murza

Kim Murza, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, received her doctorate in Education: Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Central Florida, where she specialized in language and literacy with a focus on autism spectrum disorder. She is currently an assistant professor in the department of Audiology and Speech-Language…

Read full bio

Chapters & learning objectives

1. Big Ideas of Pragmatic Language Competence

This section of the course is designed to discuss the big ideas of pragmatic language competence which includes social inference. The concept of backward design will provide a framework for considering engagement and independence as long term goals. Participants will also be introduced to a graphic organizer which depicts pragmatic language competence and will support their work to address all aspects of social inference in their assessment and intervention. Participants will learn about three foundations for communicative engagement: joint attention, theory of mind, and emotional regulation.

2. The Social Demands of School and the Workplace

This section of the course examines the social demands of school and the workplace. Participants will explore specific Common Core State Standards related to social inference and the attributes employers look for that are aligned with a social competence focus.

3. Social Inference Assessment Considerations

In this chapter, the presenter will describe assessment considerations related specifically to social inference generation. The difference between metapragmatics and pragmatic performance will be described and a variety of assessment tools appropriate across the age span will be presented.

4. Social Inference Intervention Considerations

In this chapter, the presenter will describe evidence-based intervention considerations for social inference specifically. Participants will learn about interventions that address a key foundation for social inference; joint attention. They will also learn about the Social Communication Intervention Program (Murza & Nye, 2013) and the research supporting its use.

More courses in this series