Providing preschool foundations for later reading comprehension: The importance of and ideas for targeting inferencing in storybook‐sharing interventions

TLDR

Preschool literacy interventions lack a focus on the crucial inferencing skill needed for later reading comprehension. This article offers a theoretical rationale and research‑based strategies for fostering inferential language during preschool book sharing. The authors recommend adults ask literal and inferential questions linked to story causal structure, informational and evaluative inferences, and provide a rubric connecting these questions to story grammar with an example. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Abstract

Abstract A significant gap in emerging literacy intervention with preschoolers relates to a skill that is crucial to later reading comprehension–the ability to engage in inferencing. This article presents a theoretical rationale for fostering inferential language during book sharing with preschool children, and provides research‐based ideas for how this can be best accomplished. It is suggested that, at the preschool level, children can be supported in their ability to make inferences about stories read aloud to them by having adults ask both literal and inferential questions that, first and foremost, relate to the causal structure of stories. Additionally, questions focused on informational and evaluative inferences serve to further enhance story comprehension. A rubric for connecting such questions to the elements of story grammar is offered, and a specific example from a published preschool level storybook is provided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.