Speech therapy can help children learn to answer questions, including “what” questions.  Below are several different types of “what” questions for kids that can be used in speech therapy or at home to help the child learn to answer “what” questions.  These are in order from easiest to hardest, so start at the top and work your way down as the child masters each type.

The easiest “what” question for a child to answer is “what’s this?”. However, many children with language delays tend to repeat the question instead of answering. If the child seems to know what some things are called (she is able to label them or talks about them when not being asked a question), then you can teach her how to answer the question appropriately instead of repeating it.

Find some pictures of objects (or real objects instead of pictures) that your child is familiar with. These could be favorite toys, favorite foods, etc. Choose things that the child enjoys. Now, hold up one of the pictures and say “what’s this?” Immediately model the correct response for her by saying what that thing is called. For example, if you hold up a picture of a ball, say “what’s this? Ball.” Ideally, she will repeat the word “ball” instead of “what’s this” since that is what you said last. If not, encourage her to say “ball”.

Next, ask the question again but don’t answer it for her. Pause and see if she says “ball”. If so, praise her and let her know exactly what you’re praising her for (tell her “ball, yes, it is a ball! You said ball”). If she doesn’t say ball, model it for her and have her repeat it.

Keep practicing this by modeling the question and the answer a few times and then give her another chance to answer. Keep doing this until she can answer “what’s this” about one picture. Once she can do that, introduce a new picture.

The next type of “what” question you can work on answering with a child is “what doing” questions. These are questions like “what is she doing?” or “what are you doing?”.

Find some pictures of people performing various familiar actions. You can use our free verb cards below, or make your own. Show the child one of the pictures and say “what is she doing?” If the child doesn’t answer correctly, model the correct verb and have him repeat it. Add the “-ing” on the end of the word to make it grammatically correct, but if the child just says the verb part (“jump” instead of “jumping”), that’s ok, too. At this point we just want to get the verb. We can work on the “-ing” later. Keep practicing this with one action card until he can do that one consistently. Then, add another card in and work on that one.

Now that we’ve worked on actions through “what doing” questions, it’s time to work on questions like “what do you eat?” and “what do you wear?”  Find some pictures of people performing various actions that require other objects, such as a boy eating a cracker or a girl riding a bike. You can use our free verb cards above, or make your own.

Show the child the picture and label what he is doing and what he is using to do that action.  For example say “He is eating a cracker” or “she is riding her bike”. Then, put the picture away and ask the child “what do you ___?” using the same verb that you just showed a picture of.

For example, if you show a picture of a boy eating a cracker, you could say “He is eating a cracker (put pic away), what do you eat?”. Then, have the child provide an object that answers that question. After the child starts to get the hang of this, put the pictures away and just ask the questions “what do you ____?”.

Now comes the most difficult form of “what” questions that we will practice: function questions. These are questions like “what do you do with a fork” or “what do you use a brush for?”.  Show the child a picture of a common object. Ask your child “what do you do with a ____?”. You may have to tell the child the answer at first and have him repeat it back to you. He will probably be more likely to just tell you what it’s called at first. Have him repeat back to you the answer in a short phrase or sentence, such as “you brush your hair” or “you brush your hair with a brush”. Once the child gets the hang of it, stop telling him the answers and see if he can come up with them on his own.

If the child is struggling to figure out what you do with a certain object, try handing him the actual object and watch what he does. If he uses it appropriately, describe what he’s doing. You could say “oh, you’re brushing your hair. You brush your hair with a brush. What do you do with a brush? Brush your hair”. If the child doesn’t use the object the way it’s meant to be used, show him how to use it and talk about what you’re doing.