To therapy and beyond handout

Receptive language part 3: Use of pragmatic language webinar

Examples of a target for inference:

To be able to demonstrate the ability to make inferences in response to a picture in a structured session, 80% of the time.
To make inferences from short paragraphs of information, using strategies e.g. visualising, underlining key words to support their understanding in a structured session, 80% of the time.

Example of a target for non-literal language:

To understand and use idioms in response to a picture in a structured session, 80% of the time.

Example of a target for understanding sarcasm:

Example of a target for ambiguous language and multiple meanings:

Useful structured resources:

Black Sheep Press: (e.g. Mr Goodguess, Practical Pragmatics, Speech Bubbles, People say the funniest things: Sarcasm, People say the funniest things:Idioms – and many more www.blacksheeppress.co.uk
Language for Thinking: Branagan and Parsons
Language for Behaviour and Emotions: Branagan, Parsons, and Cross
Inference Activities 2^nd Edition: David Newman
Reading and Thinking: Learning materials Ltd 2000
Idioms Cloud 9: David Newman

Ideas of activities to support generalisation outside of structured sessions

General inference:

Set up classroom as a crime scene. Be detectives looking for clues
Use social detective mind maps to identify clues in texts (such as literacy)
Guess who/what/where games
Use real life situations to discuss what we can infer (e.g. the weather, , a dirty mark on clothes)
Pixar short films on You Tube
Wordless stories – find pictures of social situations and make a story based on clues in the picture
Scavenger hunt to find partially hidden items
Joke of the day
Find ambiguous sentences in reading books and newspaper headlines

Idioms

Sarcasm

Have a sarcasm sign in class
You tube clips
Illustrated pictures – Can the child write a sarcastic comment based on what the people are doing (context), what the people are saying (literal interpretation), how the words are likely being said (sarcasm through intonation), and what the people really mean (sarcasm in context)
Silly sentences – have fun saying a silly sentence (such as “I eat worms for tea”) in different intonations to guess the feeling
Change the meaning – have a sentence (such as I didn’t say you have smelly feet) where the meaning can be changed through intonation depending on where the emphasis is placed. Be a social detective to guess the meaning through intonation