Reading comprehension: inference skills by age

Want to know how your child can build their reading inference skills year by year?

Below is an outline that I have used in primary school from Year 1 through to Year 6, based on the KS1 and KS2 English National Curriculum.

For 11 Plus exams, aim to develop your child’s skills to a Year 6, end-of-year standard.

Year 1

• Talk about a character’s feelings.
• Make inferences based on what is being said and done.
• Predict what might happen based on what has been said so far.

Year 2

• Make some inferences based on what is being said and done.
• Make a plausible prediction about what might happen based on what has been read so far.

Year 3

• Identify main ideas from a paragraph and summarise.
• Draw inferences, such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions.
• Predict what might happen from the details stated.

Year 4

• Identify main ideas from more than one paragraph and summarise.
• Draw inferences, such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence from the text.
• Predict what might happen from the details stated.

Year 5/6 (this is both Year 5 and 6 as these skills take a few years to develop fully)

• Summarise the main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph, identifying key details that support the main ideas.
• Draw inferences, such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts, and motives from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence from their own knowledge and evidence in the text.
• Make plausible predictions about what might happen from details stated or implied and support with reference to the whole text.