Next in our series of Predictable Books: Question and Answer!

In WH Question Stories, the same or similar questions are repeated throughout the story (Example: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?/ ¿Oso pardo, Oso pardo, qué ves ahi?

WH Question stories are great for therapy because:

• The repetition of the same WH question, and often similar answers, helps increase students’ participation with increased opportunities to practice a question or sentence structure
• Question and Answer stories provide great exposure to early developing question types.
• They provide an opportunity to learn conversational turn taking.
• For older students, non-fiction WH Question books provide an opportunity for students to do their own experiments and investigations, and write about them.
• You can easily include the scaffolding strategies of binary choice or picture reference, depending on the level of the child and the complexity of the book.
  • Binary choice- providing two choices for possible responses
  • Picture reference- pointing to the pictures on the page to elicit a response

How to use WH Question and Answer Stories in Speech Therapy  

As an example, here is one of our favorite Question and Answer stories, and how we like to use it in therapy to target a variety of goals:

From Head to Toe/De la cabeza a los pies

By Eric Carle

Goal:	English	Spanish
Articulation	Velars /k/ and /g/, final consonants	Velars /k/ and /g/, multisyllabic words, /s/, clusters, final consonants
Syntax	First and second person (I and You), Reflexive pronouns (Spanish), 3-5 word utterances
Semantics	Body parts, Animals, Action words
Wh- questions	What, who

A few extension activities that we like incorporating for WH Question and Answer stories are:

• Short “plays” in a group setting, the children can take turns playing the different characters and taking turns asking each other the questions that were in the story
• Create a “mini-book” for the child to take home and draw/write in their answers to questions pertinent to their life and their surroundings (example: Q: “Johnny, Johnny, what do you see?” A: “I see my doggy looking at me”)
• Interview others in their environment using the question structures (example: “Mommy, I can turn my head. Can you do it?”)
• Get outside the house or classroom! Go find all the things you can see, hear, body parts that can move, etc. and create a list to talk about

Great Books for Speech Therapy that use WH Question and Answer Stories

Below, you will also find a list of some of our other favorite WH Question and Answer Stories. Some can only be found in English at this time, but are books that we commonly translate into Spanish and have basic enough vocabulary that it is easy to do on the fly. We have also included direct links to purchase your favorites through Amazon.  We would love to hear from you on how YOU use these books in therapy!

English	Spanish	Description of Story
How Big is a Pig?	Cerdota Grandota	Plot: Visit the farm of opposites in this repetitive question and answer book to answer the mystery question: Just how big is a pig? Why we like it: Simple repetitive story structure good for targeting opposites, describing, sizes, farm animals, and sounds (great for phonological awareness activities).
I Went Walking	Sali de Paseo	Plot: A little boy goes for a walk and greets a series of animals on the way.Why we like it: Q&A, repetitive, cumulative.  I took a walk, and this is what I saw. Great for practicing first person, past tense, animals, and simple sentence structure.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?	Oso pardo, oso pardo, ¿qué ves ahí?	Plot: Successive animals ‘pose’ questions asking the reader to turn the page and see which animal is next.Why we like it: Repetitive and rhythmic, this book for early readers is great for simple labeling, nouns, adjectives and colors, along with targeting 2-4 word combinations (I see…a horse/Yo veo…un caballo).
Are You My Mother?	¿Eres Mi Mama?	Plot: A baby bird goes in search of his mother who has gone to look for something for him to eat.Why we like it: With simple words and illustrations, this humorous book can be used to target vocabulary, interrogatives, and prediction making.
From Head to Toe	De la cabeza a los pies	Plot: Children imitate animals making different movements with body parts.Why we like it: Good for targeting body parts, joint attention, following directions, and using first person.
Whose Mouse Are You?	De Quien Eres, Ratoncito?	Plot: A mouse is looking for his family and receives a delightful surprise at the end of the story. Why we like it: The author’s use of rhyming in English and Spanish makes it great for targeting articulation and phonological skills for preschool-aged children.
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?	Oso Panda, Oso Panda, Que Ves Alli?	Plot: Various animals are featured in this follow up to Brown Bear, as a tribute to endangered species. Why we like it: A another beginner book for labeling nouns, attributes, action words and practicing 2-3 word phrases.
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?	Oso Polar, Oso Polar, Que Es Ese Ruido?	Plot: Another story in a similar format to Brown Bear, each animal introduces the consecutive animal and the sound it makes. Why we like it: Similar to it’s predecessor, it is helpful for working on expanding vocabulary, action words and first person utterances.
The Very Busy Spider	La Araña Muy Ocupada	Plot: Various farm animals try to distract a spider that is busy spinning her web.  Unable to be distracted, the busy spider continues with her work and doesn’t stop until her work is complete.  Because of her determination, she ends up with a beautiful and useful web. Why we like it: Repetitive, Q&A story to use for introducing animals, places, and actions.  Great for working on sounds: English (/s/ clusters, medial /s/) Spanish: /r/, /ene/, medial /d/)

The Bus For Us

Nuestro Autobus

Plot: A little’s girl’s first day at school and first ride on the school bus.Why we like it: Introduces transportation; good for working on categories, school vocabulary; first day of school book; Good opportunities for the /s/ sound in both English and Spanish.

If you want to find more great books, please visit our Best Books for Speech Therapy page!

Content for this essay adapted from Literacy-Based Speech and Language Activities. Use it to learn how to create powerful language therapy using predictable books.