To show what our curriculum looks like in practice, here is a single example — from a full learning path down to one specific step inside it.
The example on this page is one learning path out of many. Our curriculum is organized into learning paths across two broad areas: language development and math. Each path targets a specific, teachable skill and is broken into milestones the same way Inference Builder is.
For language and reading comprehension, we build learning paths such as:
… and more, added as we validate them with our student panel.
For math, we build skill-builder paths grounded in number sense before drill:
… and more, expanded as children move through the sequence.
The rest of this page zooms into one language path — Inference Builder — and one milestone inside it, so you can see how a single learning path is actually built.
Many autistic children are not delayed in decoding. They can read the words on the page, often quickly and accurately, and they can answer simple fill-in-the-blank questions where the answer is stated directly in the text. Where they consistently struggle is with inference — the invisible reasoning step that connects what the text says to what the text means.
Because so much of reading comprehension is inference — figuring out who "she" refers to, understanding that "happy" and "glad" mean the same thing, realizing that a "golden retriever" is a kind of dog — a child who cannot infer will read fluently but comprehend poorly. They pass the decoding tests. They fail the comprehension tests. And the gap widens as the texts get harder.
Inference Builder is designed to teach inference the way any other skill is taught: broken into specific, teachable sub-skills, each practiced deliberately, each checked for mastery before moving on. The path targets the specific inference types that most often break down for autistic readers.
Inference Builder is a sequence of milestones, each targeting one type of inference. A child progresses through them in an order that matches their current profile — but every step follows the same shape: assess, teach, practice, reassess, master.
Working out who "she," "he," "they," "it," "him," "her," "them" refers to in a sentence or across sentences. When a paragraph says "Mia gave the book to Ben. He liked it." — the child needs to know that he is Ben and it is the book, without being told.
Recognizing that two different words point to the same idea. If the text says a character was furious and a question asks whether the character was angry, the child needs to infer they mean the same thing — even though the exact word doesn't appear.
Understanding that certain words carry opposite meaning. If a story says the room was silent, the child needs to infer that the room was not noisy. Antonym inference is what lets a reader hold a claim and its opposite in mind at the same time.
Knowing that specific items belong to broader groups — and using that fact to answer questions. If the text mentions a golden retriever and the question asks about a dog, the child needs to infer the connection. Category inference underlies most vocabulary-based comprehension questions.
Using descriptive language to figure out something the text never states directly. If a character is described as shivering, wrapped in a blanket, sipping hot cocoa, the child should be able to infer that the character is cold — even though the word "cold" is never used.
Connecting an event in the text to the thing that caused it or the thing that will follow. "The glass was on the edge of the table. The cat jumped up." — a child needs to infer what is about to happen next, even though the story does not say.
Figuring out what a character is feeling, wanting, or thinking based on their actions and words. If a character slams a door and won't answer questions, a child should infer that the character is upset — not that the character is fine. This is where inference meets perspective-taking.
Combining two pieces of information from the text to reach a conclusion neither piece states alone. "All the second-graders went to the assembly. Sam is in second grade." — a child should infer that Sam went to the assembly. Logical inference is the foundation of higher-level reading comprehension.
A child starts with an entry assessment that identifies which inference types are already in place and which are not. From there, the path prioritizes the missing pieces, teaching each one with short, targeted practice at the child's level. When the child masters an inference type, the path introduces problems that combine two or more types — because real reading rarely uses one kind of inference at a time.
By the end of the path, a child who could already read the words is now able to read the meaning. That is the difference between fluent decoding and real comprehension.
One milestone inside the Inference Builder learning path, taught from the simplest possible case up to the trickiest. Each stage below is only introduced once the child has mastered the one before it.
Where these exercises come from: every example is extracted from passage-reading material we created in-house. The passages are graded and map to Guided Reading Levels B through E (Fountas & Pinnell), so the sentences the child sees during pronoun practice are drawn from stories they can already decode at their level — the challenge is comprehension, not word recognition.
The starting point. One person is named. One pronoun refers back to them. Nothing to choose between.
Mom likes flowers. She particularly likes carnations. Who is she?
The child learns to look back to the most recent named person and match it to the pronoun. Practice cycles through he, she, and it, always with a single obvious referent.
Now the pronoun does not just refer to a person — it shows ownership. The child has to figure out whose the thing is.
Ben has a red bike. His bike is fast. Whose bike is fast?
Practice covers his, her, its, and, later, my, your, and their. The child learns that possessives point to the owner, not the object.
Same idea, but the pronoun now appears in the object position of a sentence — a spot autistic readers often skip past.
Grandma baked a cake. She gave it to Mia. What did Grandma give Mia?
Practice covers him, her, it, us, and them in object position.
Two or more people appear in the same passage. The child now has to choose which one the pronoun refers to, using gender, number, and context clues.
Sarah and Tom went to the park. She brought a kite. Who brought the kite?
Later variations introduce two people of the same gender ("Anna and Lily went to the park. She brought a kite.") to force the child to use context, not just gender, to resolve the pronoun.
Now a passage contains a person, an animal, and an object. The child has to sort out which pronoun goes with which.
Leo has a dog named Max. Leo gave him a bone, and he wagged his tail.
The child learns that him and he here refer to the dog, not Leo — because of what dogs do (wag tails), not because of grammar alone. This is where inference truly leaves grammar behind.
Pronouns that stand for more than one person or thing, or for a group named earlier in the passage.
The children ran outside. They laughed and played all afternoon. Who laughed and played?
Practice includes groups introduced explicitly ("the children", "the twins") and groups introduced by listing ("Mia, Ben, and Lila").
The child learns that reflexive pronouns point back to the subject of the same sentence — a subtle but important rule.
Emma looked at herself in the mirror. Who did Emma look at?
Later practice contrasts reflexive with non-reflexive in near-identical sentences ("Emma looked at her in the mirror" vs. "Emma looked at herself in the mirror") so the child learns that the ending changes who the pronoun refers to.
The advanced case. The pronoun appears several sentences away from its referent, or the passage contains a genuinely ambiguous pronoun that requires the child to weigh which reading makes more sense.
Ben and his friend Alex went camping. It rained all night, so they slept in the tent. In the morning, Ben was tired but he made pancakes for everyone.
By this stage, the child is expected to hold characters in mind across a paragraph, track who did what, and pick the referent that fits the meaning — not just the closest noun.
A child completes the Pronoun Inference milestone when they can correctly resolve pronouns across all eight stages, in unfamiliar passages, without adult prompting. From here, they are ready to move on to the next milestone in the Inference Builder path.
