What Questions: Speech Therapy Tips and Activities
Learning to answer what questions is a big step in your child’s development! There are MANY different types of what questions — “What’s that?” “What are you doing?” “What do you want?”
In order to answer these what questions, your child’s vocabulary will need to contain several hundred words.
If you ask a question your child doesn’t have the answers for, you can answer for them. This way, your child will learn new words and work toward answering the same questions on their own. Let’s look at some strategies to practice answering what questions.
What Questions: Speech therapy tips for teaching toddlers
Tip 1 - Ask “What is that?” about a familiar object
Start by asking your child, “What is that?” about a familiar object, ideally something they can hold or touch. Your child should be able to answer this question using a single word or a very short phrase. If your child doesn’t answer the question at all, verbally model the answer for them.
If your child answers incorrectly, model the CORRECT answer for them. There’s no need to tell them they’re wrong; simply state the correct response out loud. For example, if you ask “What’s that?” while pointing to a cat, and your child says “Meow,” you can respond, “Yes, that’s a kitty cat, it says meow!”
Tip 2 - Ask “What is someone doing?”
Next, start asking your child questions about what people are doing. The answers to these questions should be single verbs or action words. You may ask, “What are you doing?” or “What is Grandma doing?” Ask what questions about people your child can see; asking about people who aren’t in the room can be confusing at this stage.
You can also ask “what are they doing” questions about people in a picture book. Remember to wait for your child to respond and to model the correct answer for them, if necessary.
It’s worth noting that your child will likely answer these questions with the wrong verb tense at first. Most children don’t learn to use the “-ing” verb ending until around 27-30 months, so if your child says “dance” instead of “dancing,” that’s okay. Show your excitement that they answered with the correct action! Then you can model with the correct verb tense — “Yes, they’re dancing!” As your child’s expressive language continues to progress, their use of verb tenses will improve as well.
Tip 3 - Keep practicing during play
Once your child has learned to answer some “What is that?” and “What is someone doing?” questions, you should begin to incorporate more of these questions into play. Ask about what your child is pretending to cook or what their toys are doing. It’s important to keep your practice fun and exciting for your child.
Try your best to turn practice into a game, NOT a drill. As you turn the pages of a book, point to something and ask, “What’s that?!” Your child should be excited to give you the answer. You’ll know your child has mastered the skill of answering what questions when they are able to answer a broad variety of what questions during different activities and situations.
Download our free activities guide for teaching toddlers to answer what questions using our speech therapy tips ↓
Teaching your toddler to answer what questions - speech therapy activity
The Mystery Bag
Materials:
Random small toys and objects that your child knows the name of. Try having at least 5 items in the bag, but don’t add so many that it is too heavy for your child to hold.
A bag that you can’t see through that is large enough to hold the objects you picked. You can use a gift bag, a cloth grocery bag, even a purse.
Set-up:
Place all your objects in the bag and close it.
What to do:
In this activity you will help your child learn to answer What’s that? questions with hidden toys. Sometimes it gets boring for kids to keep being asked, “what’s that?” about objects and pictures when they know that you already know the answer. In this activity, you will be pretending that you don’t know the answer to make the question more real and functional.
Ask your child if they want to play with the magic bag. Shake the bag with excitement and say, “Hmm, I wonder what is inside!” Close your eyes, reach in the bag, and pull something out. Keep your eyes closed and ask, “what’s that?” about the object you are holding. Wait 5 seconds and see if your child answers. If they don’t, ask again. The third time, ask, open your eyes, and then answer the question. “What’s that? Oh, it’s a BALL!”
When your child is ready, you can switch roles and they will be the one to take a toy out and ask you.
What to say:
You: What’s that? [waits up to 5 seconds]
Child: [says nothing or says something else]
You: What’s that? [opens eyes] A spoon! It’s a spoon! What’s that? A spoon!
You: What’s that? [waits up to 5 seconds]
Child: Spoon.
You: [opens eyes] A spoon! You’re right. It’s a spoon. Ooh, what else is in the bag, let’s see!
PDF Download: This activity + 2 more in our what questions activities guide ↓
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Created In Collaboration By:
Stephanie Keffer, MS CCC-SLP
Stephanie Burgener-Vader, MA CCC-SLP
Melissa Sartori, MS CCC-SLP
Yvette Faire-Bostick, MS CCC-SLP
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