Wh questions—like who, what, where, when, and why—are the backbone of conversation and comprehension. For students with language delays or disorders, learning to understand and answer wh questions can be a major milestone. That’s why targeting wh questions in speech therapy is so important for building communication skills that carry over into the classroom and everyday life.

In this post, we’ll break down each type of wh question, show you why some are harder than others, and give you strategies for teaching them in meaningful, effective ways. Whether you’re working with preschoolers or school-aged students, you’ll find easy-to-use visuals, question examples, and interactive techniques to boost engagement and progress.

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

The development of Wh questions in child speech (Journal of Verbal Learning)

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

A few extension activities that we like incorporating for WH Questions 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.

Want to Get More Out of Your Speech Therapy? – Use Predictable Books

There are eight different types of predictable books as well as ways to use all the different types of predictable books with games. We can use these eight groups to categorize the books we read and get a better understanding of what each book has to offer.  These predictable categories also enable us to better define WHY our favorite books for speech therapy are successful, thus helping identify other book titles for future sessions.  Click on each story type to read more about each type of predictable books.

1. Justifying the Use of Speech Therapy Games with Literacy Research
2. Familiar Sequence Story: A common, recognizable theme such as the days of the week, the months, etc. Example: Today is Monday
3. Chain or Circular Story: The story’s ending leads back to the beginning. Example: Where the Wild Things Are
4. Cumulative Story: The story builds on a pattern. It starts with one person, place, thing, or event. Each time a new person, place, thing, or event is shown, all the previous ones are repeated. Example: There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
5. Pattern Story: The scenes or episodes are repeated with a variation. Example: Froggy Gets Dressed
6. Question and Answer Book: A question is repeated throughout the story. Example: Brown Bear, Brown Bear
7. Repetition of Phrase Book:  A phrase or sentence is repeated. Example: Goodnight Moon
8. Rhyme Book: A rhyme, refrain, or rhythm is repeated throughout the story. Example: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
9. Song Book: Familiar songs with repeated phrases, sentences, rhymes, or refrains. Example: Five Little Monkeys

Note that predictable themes are easier to identify with books written for younger children.  We often see more overlap of characteristics in different types of predictable books in stories written for older children, as they contain more story elements.

For loads more information about fun intervention strategies that incorporate books, be sure to check out our book, Literacy-Based Speech and Language Activities.

And if you want to earn CEUs and learn how to effectively learn how to use storybooks in intervention and make games, check out the Literacy-Based Everything Pack