You may have already heard your child asking one-word questions such as “what” and “where”. It’s now time to try to encourage longer “wh” questions so they can make their thoughts known and obtain information out of people.
For instance, if your child says “Where mommy?” you can model “Where did Mommy go?” or if your child asks “What is this?” you can expand by saying “What is this one called?” Feel free to ask a variety of questions throughout the day so they start to understand the syntax required to ask a question. For instance, if you are walking and see a fire truck you can say “WHO drives the firetruck?”.
The best way to target “what” is by showing them pictures of items they do not know the name. For instance, if they are into dinosaurs it could be a picture of a dinosaur they have never seen. Using motivating topics is best! Or to target “where”, you can pretend to leave or hide items to target questions like “Where is the giraffe?”. We love using occupation figurines (e.g. – doctor, teacher, chef, etc.) to target “who”.