Types of “Wh” questions for Kids
Hey there everyone! Today we are going to talk about the different types of questions that kids come across in their everyday lives. We’ve already talked about why questions are important and then why kids might be willing to answer questions or the motivation. So now we need to touch on the “who”, “what”, “where”, “when”, and “why”! Here we go!
- Who– Referring to a person
- Explain to your child that when we ask “who” we are talkingabout the personinvolved. You can even give them a little hint by naming a few people that might fit the answer. For example, you could ask “who did you play with today? Sally? Billy?”
- Here are a few other “who” questions that might behelpful to practice!
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- Who is your teacher?
- Who took your toy?
- Who is your sister?
- Who is your favorite PJ Masks Character?
- Whodid you see at the store?
- What– Referring to an item or the way we use something.
- Explain for your kiddo that “what” usually means an object, or whatsomething is called/named.This can be a toy, food, animal, or clothing, etc.
- We can also talk about“what” questions being used to describe what the item does. For example we might talk about what we do with atoothbrush, what sound an animal makes, or what did our friend/sibling do to us.
- Here are a few examples of “what” questions
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- What do you see?
- What do you want?
- What happened?
- What do we do with ahammer?
- What sound does a puppy make?
- Where– Referring to a location or place.
- Help explain that “where” questions mean the location of an item (in, on, under, between, etc.), or a place (restaurant, school, home,library, etc.). It might be helpful to use pictures, opposites, maps, or visuals to help children understand the “where” component.
- “Where” is a helpful‘wh’ question when retelling stories, expanding on preferences and even safety of children when someone might ask “where do you live?”.
- You can use “where” questions with older kiddos to help expand their language when they solving problems. You could ask questions like“where does that lego go”or “where did you last see the remote”.
- Here are a fewbasicquestions to practice “where”.
- Where does an animal live?
- Where do we put our shoes?
- Where did the ball go?
- Where do we go toswing on the swings?
- Where is your tummy?
- When– Referring to a time, event, or season.
- When is one of the more challenging‘wh’ questions for kids to comprehend, but exposing them to more ‘when’ questions will help them to solidify this skill.You can talk about “when” in the following ways!
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- Time (yesterday, today, now, tomorrow)
- Event/Holiday (Christmas, Birthday)
- Season/Weather (snow/winter, swimming/summer)
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- As your child gets older, you can expandconcepts
- When they want something
- “When do you want to play LEGO’s”
- When we want to know something
- “When did you get that”
- “When did that happen”
- When they need to solve a problem
- “When do we go to the doctor/wear a coat/etc.”
- Body Needs (bathroom, eat, etc.)
- And retelling a story
- Why – Referring to the reason
- Give examples to your children “why” you do what you do in order to help them understand the rational or logic behind your actions.
- You will notice kids naturally begin to ask “why” for everything pretty early on, and it may become difficult for you to answer sometimes! Sometimes the answer is “because I said so!”.
- Here area few examples!
- Why do you put on your coat?
- Why do we eat?
- Why do we take a bath?
- Why are we kind to our friends?
- Whyare you crying?
Whew that was a lot of information! Did you catch it all? Good news is this blog will stay up for you to reference or go back and read again once you’ve tried some of these. Do you have other question? Want more ideas about how to help your specific child? Feel free to email us, we’d be happy to help! See you next time for our last chapter in this question series!
– Kasey
