10-Minute Speech Practice That Doesn't Require Sitting Still

Last updated 2026-07-09

What are wh questions and why do they matter in speech therapy?

Wh questions are the six question types that start with a wh word: who, what, where, when, why, and how. ('How' isn't literally a wh word, but it belongs to the same grammatical family, and therapists treat it as part of the group.) Each one asks for a different kind of information. That's exactly why they're so useful in therapy.

A 'what' question calls for a noun or noun phrase. 'Where' needs a location. 'Who' needs a person or character. 'When' needs a time. 'Why' needs a causal explanation. 'How' usually needs a process or method. Six distinct thinking-and-language tasks, wrapped inside questions that sound almost identical on the surface. A child who misses that distinction answers every question with whatever word comes to mind, a pattern therapists and parents call 'random answering.'

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) lists question comprehension and formulation as part of language development across multiple age benchmarks ^[1]. Trouble with wh questions shows up all the time in late talkers, children with developmental language disorder (DLD), and autistic children, which makes it one of the most commonly targeted skills in pediatric speech therapy.

Nobody has one clean prevalence number for wh question deficits specifically. But developmental language disorder affects roughly 7 to 8 percent of children entering school ^[2], and wh question comprehension is consistently among the weakest areas on standardized assessments for that group.

What order are wh questions taught in speech therapy?

Therapists don't throw all six question types at a child at once. There's a developmental sequence that research and clinical practice both back up, and the order matters more than most parents expect.

Here's the typical teaching progression, easiest to hardest:

These ranges come from developmental norms documented across language acquisition research ^[3]. They're averages, not cutoffs. Any single child can land six months on either side without it being a worry. But if a five-year-old still can't answer 'why' questions consistently, that's a reasonable flag.

Why does 'what' come first? Because young children spend their earliest language months naming things. They already have noun knowledge. 'What is that?' maps onto a skill they're building anyway. 'Why' comes last because causal reasoning is genuinely harder. A child has to hold two events in mind at once and understand that one caused the other. That's a real cognitive load.

For children with autism or significant delays, therapists often start even more concretely, with yes/no discrimination before any wh question type enters the picture.

What questions in speech therapy: how are they taught?

'What' is the entry point for most children, and it splits into subcategories that therapists target separately. The first is usually 'what is it' or 'what is that,' answered with a label.

A therapist holds up a toy car and asks 'what is this?' The child learns that 'what' signals one thing: name the object. From there, therapists move to 'what is he doing,' which asks for an action instead of a noun. That's harder, because the child now has to retrieve a verb.

Practical strategies therapists use for 'what' questions:

Sabotage play. Put a wrong item in a container (a banana in a shoe box) and ask 'what's in the box?' The surprise pulls attention to the answer with no drilling required.

Sort and name routines. During snack, ask 'what do you want?' every single time. Repetition across natural moments builds the question-to-answer mapping faster than table-top flashcards alone.

Visual supports. A picture card with a question mark and a simple 'name' cue helps children who need to see what kind of answer is expected.

For children using AAC devices, the same question types apply. The device needs enough vocabulary that the child can get to a label, an action word, or a category. You can read more in this overview of alternative augmentative communication devices for autism.

Who questions in speech therapy: what does this target?

'Who' questions ask a child to identify a person. That sounds simple. In practice it means the child has to categorize 'person' as different from objects and places, then retrieve a name or a relational label (mom, the boy, the doctor).

Most children answer 'who' questions correctly around age two to three, though this varies a lot for late talkers and children with DLD. Therapists often introduce 'who' alongside 'what,' using the same concrete objects and simple books.

What works for 'who' questions:

Family photos beat pictures of strangers. A child is far more motivated to answer 'who is sleeping?' when the picture shows their own sibling than a generic kid from a worksheet.

Storytime targeting. Board books with recurring characters (Spot, Clifford, anything with a named main character) let you ask 'who is hiding?' on every page turn. The predictability lowers pressure and frees the child to focus on the question form.

For children who find face recognition or social attention hard (common in autism), 'who' questions may need extra scaffolding. A therapist might accept 'the boy' before expecting a proper name, then shape toward more specific answers over time.

Therapists also teach children to ask 'who' questions, not only answer them. Producing a wh question takes one more layer of language skill than answering one, and it's a separate goal.

Where questions in speech therapy: location concepts and how to build them

'Where' questions need a location answer, which means the child has to know their prepositions. 'In the box,' 'on the table,' 'under the chair' are all prepositional phrases, and preposition understanding is its own therapy target that often runs alongside wh question work.

Children start answering 'where' questions reliably around two and a half to three ^[3]. A child who doesn't yet understand 'in,' 'on,' and 'under' will struggle with 'where,' not because they miss the question word, but because they lack the vocabulary to answer.

Here's a clinical point worth remembering: sometimes the barrier isn't the question form, it's the answer vocabulary. Good therapists assess both.

Strategies for 'where' questions:

Hide-and-seek is the classic tool. Hide a small toy, ask 'where is it hiding?' After the child finds it, prompt 'where was it?' You build receptive understanding and expressive production in one game.

Tidy-up time. During cleanup, ask 'where does this go?' for every object. A real question with a real answer, which is what keeps a child motivated.

Location books. 'Where's Spot?' is built around this exact question type. It's useful by design, not by accident.

When questions in speech therapy: why are time concepts so hard?

Time is abstract. Objects sit in front of a child and can be seen. Events in the future or past require mental time travel, and that's a genuinely later-developing skill.

Most children don't answer 'when' questions consistently until age four to five ^[3]. For children with language delays, that can stretch out further. Therapists usually wait until a child has solid footing with 'what,' 'who,' and 'where' before spending real time on 'when.'

The language that goes with 'when' answers is specific too: 'tomorrow,' 'after lunch,' 'on Saturday,' 'at night.' A child who doesn't use these time markers can't answer 'when' questions even if they understand the question perfectly.

Clinical approaches for 'when' questions:

Visual schedules are gold. A picture schedule showing 'first breakfast, then school, then therapy, then home' hands a child both the vocabulary and the framework to eventually answer 'when do we go to school? After breakfast.'

Calendar routines. Families who do a daily calendar circle (common in preschool classrooms) are quietly building the vocabulary children need for 'when' answers. If you don't do this at home, it's worth starting.

Sequencing cards. Cards that show a simple three-step event (crack egg, stir batter, pour in pan) let a therapist ask 'when do we stir? After we crack the egg.' Far more concrete than asking about days or clock times.

Why questions in speech therapy: the hardest wh question and how to approach it

'Why' sits at the top of the difficulty ladder. It demands causal reasoning, a higher-order thinking skill. The child has to understand that one event caused another, hold both in working memory, and then produce a grammatically complex explanation (a 'because' sentence).

Children begin answering 'why' questions around age three but don't do it reliably until four to five ^[3]. For children with DLD or autism, that work often continues into the early school years.

One linguistic piece drives everything here: answering 'why' almost always needs the word 'because,' and using 'because' correctly is its own milestone. Therapists sometimes target 'because' sentence completion before they touch 'why' question answering at all.

Strategies for 'why' questions:

Start with familiar events that have obvious causes. 'Why is the dog barking? Because someone knocked on the door.' The answer should be something the child already knows, so the task stays purely linguistic.

Emotion 'why' questions make a good bridge. 'Why is she crying?' after she drops her ice cream is concrete and emotionally clear. Emotion-based causal reasoning tends to click earlier than abstract causal chains.

Fill-in-the-blank before full answers. 'She's crying because ___.' Sentence completion is easier than full question answering and builds the template.

For autistic children, 'why' questions often overlap with social reasoning and theory of mind. A child who finds it hard to infer why another person felt or did something may need the language scaffold and the social cognition support running side by side. The overview of autism spectrum speech therapy covers how these skills connect.

How questions in speech therapy: what's different about process questions?

'How' asks for a process, a manner, or a method. 'How did you do that?' 'How does it work?' 'How do you feel?' Each asks for a very different answer, which is part of what makes 'how' interesting to teach.

Developmentally, 'how' lands in the middle, around three and a half to four and a half years for reliable answering ^[3]. It's harder than 'what,' 'who,' and 'where' because it usually needs a multi-word or multi-step explanation.

Subtypes therapists target:

'How do you' questions about procedures (how do you make a sandwich, how do you brush your teeth). These are answerable through sequencing, which is teachable.

'How many' questions, a separate skill tied to number knowledge.

'How does it feel' questions, which open into emotion vocabulary.

Sequencing picture cards work well here. The same ones used for 'when' questions get repurposed. A therapist asks 'how do you make juice?' while the child points to or narrates the picture sequence.

For children who hit a wall with 'how' questions in school (explaining how they solved a math problem, say), speech therapy can treat this as an academic language skill. This is one place where early intervention speech and language therapy can head off later academic gaps.

Would you rather questions in speech therapy: are they useful?

'Would you rather' questions are a different animal from the standard wh types. They're preference questions with a forced choice: 'Would you rather eat pizza or tacos?' They don't fit the wh taxonomy because the child isn't retrieving information. They're expressing a preference.

So why do therapists use them? A few reasons.

They're motivating. Children lean in because the questions are playful and the child's own preference is the correct answer. No wrong response, which drops the anxiety right out of the task.

They build opinion language. Stating a preference and explaining it ('I'd rather have pizza because I like cheese') pairs a pragmatic skill with a 'why' structure. Efficient therapy.

They shine in group settings. When three kids give three different answers to the same 'would you rather,' you get natural conversational turns and perspective-taking practice for free.

Where they fit in the sequence: after a child has the basic wh forms and needs work on conversational pragmatics, opinion expression, and 'because' reasoning. They're not the starting point.

For home use, 'would you rather' questions are low-stakes and easy to drop into car rides and mealtimes with no materials at all. One of the better spontaneous tools a parent has.

How do therapists assess wh question skills?

Before targeting wh questions, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) figures out which types a child can answer and which they can't. This isn't guesswork. Therapists use standardized assessments and informal probes.

Common standardized tools include the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF), which has subtests tied to question comprehension across age levels, and the Preschool Language Scale (PLS-5), normed from birth through age seven ^[4]. These generate scores that compare a child to same-age peers and help document eligibility for services.

Informal wh question probes are standard too. A therapist might present ten 'what' questions, ten 'where' questions, and so on, using pictures or real objects, then count how many of each type the child gets right. Quick functional picture, none of the time cost of a full standardized battery.

Sometimes the barrier isn't comprehension, it's production. A child might understand what 'where' means but lack the expressive vocabulary to answer. Or they can answer but can't yet ask their own wh questions. Therapists assess both directions, because they're separate skills that don't always develop in sync.

If your child is already in the school system and getting services, wh question goals should appear in the IEP with measurable benchmarks. If you're seeking an evaluation, your state's early intervention program covers children from birth to age three at no cost under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ^[5].

What does a wh questions speech therapy session actually look like?

Real sessions don't look like flashcard drills, at least not the good ones. Most pediatric SLPs use a play-based approach, because children pick up language fastest in contexts that feel natural and interesting to them.

A typical session targeting wh questions for a preschooler might run like this.

The therapist sets up a farm playset. She starts playing and narrates ('the cow is eating'). She pauses and asks 'what is the cow doing?' If the child answers, she responds naturally and plays on. If the child doesn't answer or misses, she gives a cue ('it starts with eat...') and then models the full answer.

She moves across question types inside the same activity. 'Who is in the barn? Where is the pig? What does the farmer do?' The play is the hook. The question types are the target.

For children who need more support, therapists use a prompt hierarchy, from full verbal models ('say eating') to partial phonemic cues to expectant waiting. The aim is to find the level of support that lets the child succeed most of the time, then pull that support back gradually.

Data collection runs the whole time. The therapist marks each attempt as correct, incorrect, or prompted. Over the weeks, she's watching the percentage of correct independent responses climb.

Little Words (littlewords.ai) uses a similar model digitally, with guided question prompts and response tracking so families can practice these exact question types between sessions. The app shows parents which wh types their child is getting right and which still need work.

For a wider look at what therapy involves, the guide to speech therapy for kids covers the full picture.

How can parents practice wh questions at home?

The biggest driver of how fast a child generalizes wh question skills is how often they meet those questions outside of therapy. One session a week isn't enough practice volume on its own. Home practice does a lot of the heavy lifting.

The good news: wh question practice needs no materials and no prep. Almost every daily routine is an opening.

During meals: 'Who made this soup? What are we eating? Where does bread come from?'

During bath time: 'Where does the soap go? What is this called? Who uses shampoo?'

During books: Pause on any picture and ask a targeted question. Pick the type your child is working on in therapy and use it consistently across contexts.

During TV: When a character does something, pause and ask 'why did she do that? What happened? Where are they going?' Children's shows are a surprisingly rich source of causal reasoning practice.

A few things to skip. Don't quiz without purpose. Children notice when questions feel like tests instead of conversation, and it shuts them down. Keep it inside genuine interaction. And don't correct wrong answers harshly. Model the right answer and move on. 'Oh, the dog is in the yard! The dog is in the yard. Where is the cat?'

If your child's therapist gave you specific targets and a question hierarchy, follow it. Your job is to create more practice with those exact targets, not to jump ahead.

What if a child still can't answer wh questions at school age?

If a child is five or six and still consistently missing wh questions, take it seriously. It doesn't mean something is catastrophically wrong. It does mean the skill needs more focused support than incidental exposure can give it.

At school age, wh question trouble touches reading comprehension (nearly every comprehension question is a wh question), social conversation, and classroom participation. Teachers ask 'what, why, how' constantly. A child who can't process those questions is at a real disadvantage.

For school-age children, goals often shift toward the harder types (why, when, how) and toward producing wh questions in conversation rather than just answering them. Academic language targets come into play ('how did the author show,' 'why did the character change').

If your school-age child doesn't qualify for school-based services but you believe they need help, you have options. Private SLPs and telehealth platforms have widened access a lot. A good overview of telehealth is in this guide to online speech therapy.

ASHA's National Outcomes Measurement System has published data showing that children who receive speech-language services make meaningful gains on functional communication measures ^[6]. The evidence base for wh question intervention specifically is smaller but consistent: explicit instruction with feedback produces faster growth than incidental learning alone ^[7].

If you're worried about where your child stands, start with a full speech delay evaluation. A diagnosis or documented delay opens the door to services under IDEA for school-age children under Part B ^[5].

Frequently asked questions

At what age should a child answer all wh questions correctly?

Most children answer 'what' and 'who' by age two to three, 'where' by three, and 'why,' 'when,' and 'how' by four to five. By kindergarten (around age five), a child should handle all six types in familiar contexts. If a five-year-old still struggles consistently with 'why' or 'when,' an evaluation by an SLP is a reasonable next step.

What are the best activities for wh questions at home?

Book-reading has the highest yield, because you can target any question type with the same book. Hide-and-seek builds 'where.' Cooking together builds 'what,' 'how,' and 'why.' Daily routines (bath, meals, car rides) give dozens of natural chances with zero prep. Focus on one or two types your child is working on in therapy rather than cycling through all six at once.

Are wh question difficulties a sign of autism?

Not automatically. Wh question difficulties show up in many profiles: late talkers, children with developmental language disorder, children with hearing loss. They do appear often in autism, frequently alongside trouble with 'why' questions that need social reasoning. An evaluation by an SLP and a developmental pediatrician together gives the clearest picture. The SLP identifies the language pattern; the physician rules a broader diagnosis in or out.

Why does my child answer every question the same way?

This is 'perseverative' or 'echolalic' answering, common in children who haven't yet mapped different question words to different answer types. The child hears a question and fires back a word or phrase without processing what kind of information is being asked for. Direct, structured teaching of what each question word means, pairing the word with a visual cue for the answer type, usually breaks the pattern over time.

What are good wh questions for speech therapy worksheets?

Effective worksheets pair a clear picture with a targeted question and a supported answer format (fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice rather than open-ended). The best ones group question types separately (a 'where' page, a 'who' page) so the child practices one mapping at a time. Teachers Pay Teachers, the ASHA Leader Blog, and SLP blog communities (Speechy Musings, Crazy Speech World) publish free and paid materials reviewed by SLPs.

How many wh questions should be in a therapy goal?

IEP and therapy goals usually specify a question type, a context, a percentage correct, and a level of cueing. A sample goal: 'The student will answer 'who' and 'what' questions about a shared picture book with 80% accuracy across three consecutive sessions with minimal verbal cuing.' Targeting two or three question types per goal cycle is common. Jumping to all six at once usually slows progress.

Should I use pictures or real objects to practice wh questions?

Real objects and real situations work better for very young children and those with significant delays, because they're concrete and motivating. Pictures are fine once the child has some foundational understanding. For generalization (getting a skill to work across settings), practice in both formats. If your child only answers correctly with cards and not in real conversation, that's a signal to shift more practice to natural contexts.

What is 'where' question therapy for a child who doesn't understand prepositions yet?

Preposition teaching usually runs in parallel. Therapists address 'in,' 'on,' 'under,' 'next to,' and 'behind' as vocabulary targets while building 'where' question understanding. You can't answer 'where is the ball?' with 'in the box' if you don't know what 'in' means. If your child fails 'where' questions consistently, ask their SLP whether preposition comprehension has been assessed.

How are 'why' questions taught in speech therapy for autistic children?

Therapists often start with physical causation ('why did the cup fall? Because I pushed it') before social causation ('why is she sad? Because she lost her toy'). Social 'why' questions require theory of mind, inferring another person's feelings or motivations, which is a separate area of difficulty in autism. Both strands run in parallel: language scaffolding for the 'because' structure and social reasoning support for the content.

What do 'when' questions look like in speech therapy for preschoolers?

Preschool 'when' therapy is almost entirely tied to visual schedules, routines, and sequencing. 'When do we eat lunch? After circle time.' 'When do you brush teeth? Before bed.' Therapists use first-then boards and picture sequences to give children the conceptual scaffolding and the vocabulary (after, before, next, then, in the morning) needed to answer time-based questions.

Are 'would you rather' questions used in speech therapy, and how?

Yes, especially for pragmatic language and opinion expression. 'Would you rather' questions are low-anxiety, motivating, and naturally prompt 'because' reasoning when you follow up with 'why?' They work well in group therapy for turn-taking and in individual sessions when a child needs to practice expressing preferences. They're not a substitute for foundational wh question work, but they're a good bridge to conversational language.

What questions does a speech therapist ask to evaluate a child?

During a wh question evaluation, an SLP typically presents a structured set of picture-based questions across all six types and records accuracy. They also watch spontaneous conversation to see whether the child uses wh questions to seek information. Standardized tools like the CELF-5 or PLS-5 may be used alongside informal probes. Parents usually complete a developmental history questionnaire about when milestones occurred.

How long does it take for wh question therapy to work?

Honest answer: it varies widely. A child close to developmental readiness for a question type may show gains in four to eight weeks of focused therapy plus consistent home practice. A child with significant language delay may need months. Research on explicit wh question instruction in children with DLD shows meaningful gains over a six to twelve week period ^[7], but generalization to natural conversation takes longer.

Can speech therapy apps help with wh questions?

Apps can give meaningful supplemental practice between sessions, especially for repetition and data tracking. They work best as additions to, not replacements for, SLP-guided therapy. Look for apps that target specific question types, give feedback, and adjust difficulty. Little Words (littlewords.ai) includes guided wh question practice and lets parents track which types their child is getting right, which is useful for reporting back to an SLP.

Sources

1. ASHA, Language Development milestones: ASHA documents language development benchmarks including question comprehension across age ranges
2. Norbury CF et al., Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2016: prevalence of DLD: Developmental language disorder affects approximately 7.6% of children entering school
3. Tyack D & Ingram D, Journal of Child Language, 1977: wh question developmental sequence: Classic study documenting the developmental order of wh question types in children; 'what' and 'who' emerge first, 'why' and 'when' last
4. Zimmerman IL et al., Preschool Language Scale-5 (PLS-5), Pearson: PLS-5 is a standardized assessment normed from birth through 7;11 used to evaluate language comprehension and expression including question forms
5. U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): IDEA Part C covers early intervention services for children birth to age 3; Part B covers school-age children with documented disabilities including language disorders
6. ASHA, National Outcomes Measurement System (NOMS): ASHA NOMS data indicates children receiving speech-language services show measurable gains on functional communication measures
7. van Kleeck A et al., American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2010: wh question intervention: Explicit instruction with feedback produces faster wh question gains than incidental learning alone in children with language delays
8. ASHA, Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology: ASHA defines the professional scope of practice for SLPs, including language comprehension and question formulation as within scope
9. AAP, Developmental Surveillance and Screening guidance: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends developmental surveillance and referral for language concerns at well-child visits
10. Pearson Assessments, CELF-5 Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals: CELF-5 is a standardized assessment used by SLPs to evaluate language abilities including question comprehension in school-age children