Strengthening Inference Skills on the Autism Spectrum

Ever wondered how to truly understand the hidden meanings in stories and social interactions? Join me, as I share my personal insights in navigating the world of inferences while living on the autism spectrum. Reflect on my struggles and triumphs, and learn how language development and dedicated study played pivotal roles in enhancing my ability to draw subtle conclusions. I aim to try and break down the different types of inferences—from environmental and character interaction to social situations and hidden motives—and explore their significance in storytelling and everyday life.

This episode is packed with an interactive practical exercise aimed at boosting inference-making skills. Discover how to deduce the culprit in a broken vase incident or interpret social cues at a party. Engage with tips like reading illustrated books, studying body language, and observing real-life interactions to master the art of inference. Whether you aim to navigate stories more effectively or improve your social understanding, this episode offers actionable insights and strategies to help you decode hidden meanings and enhance your communication skills.

Thanks for listening. You can find me on my website stephensevolution.com, or on twitter here. You can sign up to receive news of new episodes when they're released here.


Artwork produced by Elena Designe
Music composed by Nela Ruiz

Transcript

Introduction

Hi there and welcome back to another episode of the Stephen's Evolution podcast. I'm Stephen McHugh, your host, and I make fortnightly episodes based on my lived experiences on the autism spectrum.  In this episode, I'm going to be delving into the fascinating world of inferences in storytelling.

Cast your mind back to whenever you've read your favourite stories and found yourself wondering about the hidden meanings or the underlying messages in the stories themselves. Have you ever wondered about any of these things or the underlying messages in the stories themselves? Well, you're not alone. For a long time, the word inferences wasn't even in my vocabulary. It wasn't until I was going through some of my old school reports from primary school that I noticed this word. One report noted that I found it difficult to understand inferences, or something along those lines. Thinking back to my time at primary school, I didn't really fully understand what this meant, but one thing I did know was that it was something I struggled with. Looking back, as I progressed through my language skills evolved and improved over time.

As my understanding improved and, looking back, I began to understand and realise how important inferencing is when it comes to understanding stories and communicating effectively in everyday life. Since my language skills have improved, I decided to study inferences more closely and, at the same time, challenge myself to see just how much better I could now get at working them out. 

In this episode, the aim is for me to share what I've learned about making inferences, why they can be particularly challenging for those of us with autism, and how we can improve our ability to draw these subtle conclusions. Together, we'll be exploring different types of inferences through various scenarios, along with looking at practical strategies to enhance these skills and even allowing you the opportunity to have some fun exercises where you can try decoding some examples of inferences yourself. So let's get started on this journey to decode the hidden meanings in stories and engage any listeners and readers more deeply. 

Understanding Inferences

Now, after having just introduced this topic, let's now get stuck in with trying to understand what inferences are and their roles in storytelling. So what actually inferences can be viewed as? Conclusions or assumptions deduced from written or spoken information. It can be based on things like the knowledge of a reader or a listener, lived experiences.  

When it comes to reading stories, inferences can help us to work out what's going on in them, giving us ideas what a particular book or story may be about. In addition, through inferences, it can be possible to understand how characters may be feeling and what they may be thinking about, and how they may be thinking too. However, making inferences can be particularly challenging, as I've found out in my time based on my own lived experiences. 

What I can say is these challenges often stem from my language and speech development delays. My ability to understand language can be included here. For me, these delays made it more difficult for me to understand language itself, along with me finding it difficult at times to pick up on various voice tones, such as trying to work out whether or not someone may be joking about something. Consequently, I would struggle to work out how people may be feeling, to work out how people may be feeling. Another thing I'd like to bring to your attention here is that I took more literal views of language, especially more complicated forms such as idioms and metaphors. 

There are different types of inferences that we can make. There are different types of inferences that we can make. One example is environmental inferences. An example here could involve trying to work out what the current surroundings are like, such as the weather. 

A second example can be character interaction. This can involve studying one's body language and working out whether or not they may be interested in something going on at a particular described moment.

A plot inference can be in a story. Such an inference in this scenario can leave us to guess what may have gone on in a particular scenario described. 

In the case of a social situation inference, we can be in a situation where we may be trying to work out possible reasons for why someone may be behaving in a certain way at a social gathering. 

Contextual clues can involve making actions based on certain possible anticipations. Hidden motive inferences can be inferences that may involve working out possible hidden clues to something. 

And, finally, a consequence inference could be to do with working out possible reasons based on one's actions. Understanding these different types of inferences can help us to better navigate stories and social situations and the way we may interact with other people in such cases. Such skills can improve our ability to draw conclusions and engage more deeply with the stories we may read or hear. Stay tuned as I go into some examples of the types of inferences that I've already mentioned in this section.  

The next section is going to be about you, to give you opportunities to interact with this episode. There will be described scenarios where you'll be given the chance to make inferences from the described scenarios themselves. I'll be giving out my own conclusions or the way I infer the scenarios themselves.


Interactive Inference Exercises

And now here I'm going to give you an exercise with eight examples of the type of inferences we can come across in stories and in everyday life. After I read out every described scenario, you can pause the episode so you can work out what you can infer from the described scenarios themselves. And when you're confident that you've inferred what you can from a scenario to the best of your ability, you can press play again.

Example Number One: An Emotional Inference.

Example number one,  an emotional inference scenario. Here a boy walks out of the classroom holding his test results. He has a big smile on his face and is jumping up and down for joy. And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario. 

What I can infer here is that the boy described here in the example, he must be very happy about his test results. This may mean he can take his next planned step in his education or career, like a training course or job. The explanation for this inference here can be based on the boy's actions and expressions. Expressions smiling and jumping up and down can be seen as signs of happiness and excitement. By connecting these clues it can be possible for us to infer his positive feelings about the test results and what they might mean for his future.

Example Number Two: An Environmental Inference.

The scenario.  As Sarah steps outside, she pulls her coat tightly around her and sees her breath forming small clouds in the air.  And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario here.

I could infer that the season is likely to be winter in the scenario described, as it must be cold enough for breath to be visible. Based on my past experiences, I have come across sunny weather first thing in the day but at the same time felt it to be cold and seeing some frost on the lawns, fields and ice on the pavements and roads, especially if it was wet the evening before. 

In addition, if you've got scientific knowledge, that can be useful here. 

Science is a subject that I've been interested about for a long time. Your breath, when it comes out, is coming from a warm environment to a colder environment. The change of state here from a gaseous state to a condensation state. So when something in gaseous form is introduced to a colder environment, it condenses. 

The explanation here for this inference can be that visible breath can usually indicate cold weather, as we may often see in winter, especially as described in the scenario. We read that Sarah is pulling on her coat tightly, which may suggest to us that it's quite chilly. Observations like this here can help us to infer the season and weather conditions, along with any scientific knowledge that any readers may have.

Example Number Three: Character Interaction Inference.

The scenario:  During the meeting John keeps glancing at his watch and tapping his foot on the floor. And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario. 

What I can infer here is that John might have become disinterested or bored in the meeting, and thinks he likely won't get anything valuable out of it. The explanation here is that John's body language as described, like glancing at his watch and tapping his foot, may suggest to us that he's becoming impatient or bored. These clues in the described scenario can be useful here in helping us to infer about his feelings regarding the meeting. 

Example 4. A Plot Inference.

The scenario. Alice saw the shattered vase on the floor and the cat sitting nearby looking innocent, and now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario. What I could infer from this is that it's possible the cat might have knocked the vase off the shelf or windowsill. Alice might suspect the cat as it is the only moving living thing around at the time.

On the other hand, it can be possible that the vase was broken for some time and Alice hadn't been in the location for some time too, and it's possible the cat may have only just arrived in the location. Here, Alice's suspicion can be based on the presence of the cat in and around the broken vase. While it's a logical assumption, considering other possibilities can also be another important thing to bear in mind.
 
Example 5. A Social Situation Inference 

The scenario. At the party, Maria noticed that Jane was standing alone by the table, looking around the room frequently. And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario. 

What I could infer from this is that Jane might be feeling anxious, lonely, left out and wondering how she'd fit in with the other guests. In addition, it's possible she may be looking around, listening and finding out possible conversations to join into and someone to talk to, or she's just feeling overwhelmed by all the noise and activity. 

The explanation here for me is possible in the described scenario, that Jane's behaviour could indicate social anxiety or discomfort. Frequent glances around the room could suggest to us that she's seeking some connection or escape. These can be common feelings for us on the autism spectrum. Can be common feelings for us on the autism spectrum. I could make this assumption based on my own lived experiences with autism and having been in situations like this.

Example 6. Context Clues Inference. 

While walking out in the park, Tom suddenly opened his umbrella even though it wasn't raining yet. And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario here.

What I worked out was Tom may have noticed darkening clouds and preparing for a forthcoming rain shower. It is possible he might have remembered watching or listening to a weather forecast predicting showers. Tom's action here may suggest to us that he's predicting rain based on environmental clues like dark clouds and the knowledge he got from a weather forecast only like an hour or two before. For me, this inference is logical, given the context.

Example 7. Hidden Motive Inference 

The described scenario. Whenever Mark’s Friend started talking about their weekend plans, Mark would quickly change the subject.  And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario here. 

For me. Here what I could work out was that there might be something in the plans. That makes Mark feel rather uncomfortable. He might not want to go ahead with the plans for the weekend. He might not want to go ahead with the plans for the weekend. Here, changing the subject may indicate feelings of discomfort or unwillingness. Mark's behaviour may suggest to us he is avoiding the topic due to negative feelings about the plans.

Example 8. Consequence inference

The scenario. After the argument, Emma stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her. And now hit pause to have a go at inferring the described scenario here. 

For me, what it may be possible to work out is that Emma might have had a strong disagreement about something that went on in the room. She might have thought someone was doing something wrong and could not convince others otherwise, leading to her anger. Emma's actions here, like storming out of the room and slamming the door, could indicate strong emotions, with that anger being the likely one, strong emotions without anger being the likely one. This behaviour and similar behaviours like this could suggest to us a significant disagreement or frustration.

Recommendations on Improving Understanding Inferences

Now that we've explored together and got a better idea of what inferences are and gone through different types of inferences, let's now talk about some practical recommendations I have for improving one's ability to be better able to understand them.

Number One

Why not engage with your favourite books or comics. For me, to enhance inference skills, sources like these can often contain rich illustrations and context clues that can help us to practise making inferences. Look closely at the illustrations, then have a think about what they might tell you about the feelings of characters, their actions and the environments in which they may be presented. This can be an ideal way.
 

Tip Number Two

For me, understanding body language is another crucial factor when it comes to making inferences, especially when it comes to trying to work out how someone may be feeling about something. One idea you could do here is to have a quiz where you could draw various faces, with each one representing a particular emotion. This can be effective in helping one to understand various emotions.

Quiz formats, I found, can help with cooperation and engagement, as one may feel motivated and determined to understand various emotions and how they are represented. During such a quiz, one should be given the opportunity with a list of multiple choice questions where one may have to guess what emotion a particular drawing may represent, by offering opportunities to read up about and get an idea of emotions for visual learners, as they offer visual cues to help interpret emotions and body language.


Tip Number Three
 
When reading stories, why not take time to study the text and any accompanying illustrations. Illustrations for me from my experience. Experience can provide additional contexts and clues that I believe can enhance your understanding of any story you may read. For example, a picture of a character with a frown and crossed arms can indicate that they are upset or angry. In any other storybooks you might find characters having a picnic, and see that they're  smiling, which may suggest that they're having fun and a good time together. By analysing visual cues like these, it can be possible to make more accurate inferences about a particular story.

Tip Number Four 

Another useful tip here can be to practise making inferences in real-life situations, such as during everyday conversations with other people. 

Why not try to observe people around you and try to infer their feelings, thoughts or intentions based on their body language, facial expressions and their voice tones as well? Such clues can help us, I believe, to become more attuned to the subtle cues that people give off in everyday conversations and interactions with others. Conversations and interactions with others.

Tip Number Five

 Why not try to incorporate quizzes, storytelling activities and role-playing exercises into one's routine? Such interactive and fun tools can make the process of learning inferences more engaging, appealing, fun and enjoyable. For instance, creating and discussing short stories can help to reinforce the practice of drawing inferences from context clues. 

By employing strategies like I've talked about before in the earlier part of the episode, it can be possible for you to gradually improve your ability to understand and make inferences. Just remember the key is consistent practice and engagement with various forms of media and real-life interactions. For me, the more one practices, the better one can become at decoding hidden meanings in stories and understanding the subtleties of social interactions.

Conclusion

And that brings us to the end of this episode on decoding inferences in storytelling. Let's quickly have a recap of what's been covered together. 

We started by looking at how we can understand what inferences are and the crucial roles they play in storytelling and the way we interact in everyday conversations. We looked at different types of inferences, from emotional and environmental to character interaction and plot inferences. I also talked about how making inferences can be particularly challenging for those of us with autism, based on my own lived experiences with language development delays and having taken more literal views of language. 

Then there was the matter of moving on to a fun and interactive exercise where I gave you the opportunity to practise making inferences yourself from examples I've come up with. If you had a go at these, it is hoped that you found these scenarios described fun, challenging and enjoyable. In addition, I hope they helped you to think more deeply about how to draw conclusions from context clues. 

And finally, I shared some practical recommendations for improving inferencing skills. These included engaging with favourite story books and comics. Remember, consistent practice and engagement with various forms of media and real-life interactions can be key to becoming better at making inferences and drawing conclusions from written or spoken text.

I encourage you to keep trying out these tips and resources and to keep practising inference skills. The more you practise, the easier it will become over time to decode hidden meanings and understand the subtleties in stories and social interactions. How long it may take one to do this will vary from person to person. Thank you very much for joining me on this journey in trying to master the art of making inferences. It is hoped that you found this episode informative, insightful and helpful. 

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Don't forget to follow me on social media, like on Twitter. You can find a link to my Twitter account via the footer of my website. You can engage with me, including sharing your own solutions from the interactive section of this episode and any other experiences of inferencing, including successes and struggles and overcoming them. 

You can also ask any questions you might have. I'm always excited to look out for and hear from anyone to continue the conversation, and any other conversation related to my blog and podcast, for that matter. 

Stay tuned for the next episode, where I plan to explore a new interest of mine, running. I'll talk about how I've got into it, its benefits and any tips that I can provide for any beginners or those of you who may want to start their own running journeys. You might want to tune into that episode if you plan on starting your own running journey, so you won't want to miss it. Goodbye for now. Have a great day and happy inferencing.