Practice answering “WH” questions

Reading

Reading is one of THE best ways to develop language and even speech skills. You will see “reading” for the functional game on this page. Why mess with what works best, right?! The only difference will be HOW you read to your child. 

For Children age 2-3

How: Sit down with your child and pick a favorite book (preferably one with pictures and of interest to your child). Read the book with lots of animation and excitement. After reading for a bit…

  • Ask “what is this?” and point to an object. See if your child can answer. If he/she can’t, say the answer and see if he/she can repeat. 
  • Ask “where is….?” about a pictured person/object/animal (the picture helps tremendously with the learning process). Wait to see if your child can answer. If not, answer your own question while pointing to the pictures.
  • Ask “who” and “what-doing” questions (for 2-3 years old) as well as the questions listed above. If your child can’t answer a question, answer your own question by pointing to the picture and/or thinking OUT LOUD. By using these strategies, you teach your child HOW to answer a question and not just simply the answer. 

For Children age 3-5

How: Sit down with your child and pick a favorite book (preferably one with pictures and of interest to your child). Read the book with lots of animation and excitement. After reading for a bit…

  • Ask “what” and “where” questions as naturally as possible. These type of questions are easier so start here. If your child doesn’t know the right answer, point to the correct response (if possible) and talk through your reasoning. This “talking through” is the most important part.
  • Ask “why,” “how,” and “when” questions while reading. These type of questions require higher level language reasoning skills. Therefore, they are tougher. To make this easier, relate the story to a real-life experience. For example, if you ask “why is George feeling sad?” and your child doesn’t know the answer. You might say, “George is feeling sad because he lost his toy. Look at the previous page, he lost his toy. Remember when you lost your toy and you cried? How did you feel? (child answers sad). That is how George feels.” 

Key Strategies:

  • Point to pictures to help answer questions
  • Talk through your reasoning
  • Relate the story to real-life experiences

For children in Early Elementary

Reading

Even at this age, reading continues to be one of the best ways to learn how to answer WH questions. 

How: Sit down with your child and pick a favorite book (preferably one with pictures and of interest to your child). Read the book with lots of animation and excitement (you know the drill)

Ask your child questions, any of the questions listed above in the “expectations section” as naturally as possible. If your child can’t answer one, try some strategies below:

Key Strategies:

  • Point to pictures to help answer questions: Point to pictures as you answer questions. Any visual is a great thing in the learning process!
  • Direct Teaching: If your child is having trouble with a question word such as “where,” open a book and say “where means place. Let’s find all the ‘places’ in this book.” Then, take turns pointing to different places such as a school, car, park, city, etc…
  • Relate Story To Real Life: To teach higher level reasoning skills such as “what-if” and “why,” it can help to relate the story to a real-life experience. 
  • Talk Through Reasoning: For questions such as “what will happen next,” talk through your response. For example, if you say “what do you think will happen next?” listen to your child’s response and applaud ANY answer. If your child is way off, that is actually a good thing. You now have the opportunity to talk through how to answer prediction questions. You can say, “I think the paint will spill. See how the paint is on the edge of the table and the cat jumped on the table (while pointing). I think the cat will make the table shake and the paint will fall. Look it is already tipping! What do you think?”

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