Wh-Question Formation
Practice forming who, what, where, when, and why questions from picture scenes.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Insist on a well-formed question rather than a question word. What she eating is a question and not a well-formed one, and the auxiliary inversion — what is she eating — is what the task is for. Do the what and where items first, which take a simple inversion, and leave why and how until later, since those often need a fuller sentence. Eight minutes covers the twelve.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- HintStress the part of the sentence that changes, or point to the word ending.Log as cued
- Sentence starterSay the first half of the sentence and let the student finish it.Log as cued
- ModelSay the correct form in the whole sentence; the student repeats it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give a sentence starter every time, and do fewer cards.
Ask for a new sentence of the student's own with the same form, with no card to lean on.
Matching IEP goal
Given sentence cards, Student will produce questions with correct word order in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Twelve statements, each with a question type to produce: the girl is eating, ask a what question; the boy is at the park, ask a where question; he is crying because he fell, ask a why question; she rode the bus, ask a how question. Asking questions is a harder skill than answering them and is almost never taught directly.
What to listen for
Listen for the inversion. Where the boy is has the question word and the statement word order, which is the characteristic error and is different from not knowing the question word. Watch the why items, where the statement already contains the answer — a student who asks why is he crying has ignored the because clause, which is exactly right.
Carrying it home
Swapping roles is the practice. Asking a child to ask you three questions about your day, rather than answering three about theirs, reverses the usual direction and is where question formation actually gets exercised.
What's in this activity
- The girl is eating. → Ask a 'what' question.
- The boy is at the park. → Ask a 'where' question.
- Mom made dinner. → Ask a 'who' question.
- The game starts at six. → Ask a 'when' question.
- He is crying because he fell. → Ask a 'why' question.
- She rode the bus. → Ask a 'how' question.
- The cat is under the bed. → Ask a 'where' question.
- Dad fixed the sink. → Ask a 'who' question.
- They ate pizza. → Ask a 'what' question.
- We leave on Friday. → Ask a 'when' question.
- She won the race. → Ask a 'who' question.
- It broke because it fell. → Ask a 'why' question.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Kindergarten through third, and older students learning English as an additional language.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve items play free.
- Why practise asking rather than answering?
- Because asking is harder and less often taught. A question requires the student to identify what they do not know and to invert the sentence, neither of which answering demands.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.