If your child has a language delay or disorder, it’s likely they may have difficulty answering “wh” questions (who, what, where, when, why). Some children provide no answer to these questions and others may repeat part of the question back to you. You may be wondering what you can do at home to help improve your child’s ability to answer these questions.
Answering questions is an important skill to acquire in order to have conversations and participate in school. The ability to answer who, what, and where questions develops prior to when and why questions. Try focusing on these early developing “wh” questions with your child. If your child is unable to appropriately answer these questions you may want to try to provide them with two options as support. For example:
- “Where does a bird fly?” “On the floor or in the sky”
- “What do you wear on your foot?” “A shoe or a hat”
You can also try to provide your child with a phrase completion or phonemic cue as another form of support. For example:
- “Where does a bird fly?” “In the _____”
- “What do you wear on your foot? “”A sho___”
There are many opportunities throughout the day to ask your child questions, but one excellent time is while reading stories. Story books will provide your child with visual cues to help them answer questions. Please visit my previous post entitled 5 Books to Encourage Language Development .
Below are some recommended products to help improve answering “wh” questions.
1. “WH” Questions at Home Fun Deck Cards
2. “WH” Question & Answer Blast-Off Board Game
3. Ask and Answer “Who?” Questions Card
Buzz Speech 