Developing Language

Questions can encourage development of general language and vocabulary as well as skills in comprehension, reasoning, inferencing, predicting and problem solving.

These questions can be used in everyday activities – reading a picture book, drawing, playing, preparing a meal together. It is important for adults to make comments and provide more descriptions than asking questions alone.

• “What is happening?”
• “Who ___?”
  (e.g. Who is watering the flowers?, Who is ?)
• “Where ___?”
  (e.g. Where is the boy?, Where is the lion hiding?)

• “Show me which one is ____ and ____.”
  (e.g. “orange and tall” (giraffe), “circle and black” (wheel), “slimy and green”
  (frog) )
• “Who ___?”
  (e.g. Who is watering the flowers?, Who is ?)
• “How does ___ smell/taste/feel/?”
  (e.g. “flower” (good/nice/fresh), “chocolate” (sweet), pillow (soft/smooth) )

• “Show me which one we use for _____.”
  (e.g. “cooking” (ladle, pot), “painting” (brush), “brushing teeth” (toothbrush) )
• “What can you do with a ____?”
  (e.g. “scissors” (cut paper), “ball” (play/throw/catch), “car” (drive), “bicycle”
  (cycle/ride) )
• “Tell me something else that (is a) _____ (name of a category/characteristic)”
  (e.g. “animal” (frog, tiger), “fruit” (apple), “flies in the sky” (bird, butterfly), “part of your body/body part” (nose, fingers) )