This is the first article in our series on “WH” questions. “Who” questions are the easiest questions to understand for children from 2 years old and to teach in ABA or speech therapy sessions for children with autism or speech delay.
Why learn to answer “Who” questions
It is absolutely fundamental for children to learn to answer WH questions in general and Who questions in particular. For one, they lay the groundwork for children to participate in conversations because a conversation at the essence is a set of questions and answers. But most importantly, Who questions enable children to collect information related to their environment and help them navigate relationships with others. ABA, speech therapy, and special education sessions are great places to use these resources.
We were first hit with the necessity to teach our autistic daughter to answer “who” questions when seeing some bruises on her arms and suspecting one of her caretakers at school of abusing her. We needed to confirm “who” that person was but unfortunately she was not yet equipped with the tools and understanding to answer our questions.
Keep in mind that if your child is not yet able to identify community helpers, you can start with this activity first: Find the community helpers flashcards. Once your child masters community helpers, he can successfully tackle “who” questions.
What are some examples of “Who” questions?
In this activity, we included 16 “who” questions. The questions were specifically chosen to pinpoint people that students know very well:
- Who puts out the fire? (firefighter)
- Who cleans your teeth? (dentist)
- Who collects garbage? (trashman)
- Who fixes cars? (mechanic)
- Who travels to space? (astronaut)
- Who builds houses? (builder)
- Who drives the bus? (driver)
- Who do we go see when we’re sick? (doctor)
- Who teaches kids at school? (teacher)
- Who delivers the mail? (postman)
- Who helps people in the store? (clerk)
- Who takes care of sick animals? (vet)
- Who cuts people’s hair in a salon? (hairdresser)
- Who flies an airplane? (pilot)
- Who works at a restaurant and cooks the food? (chef)
- Who sells meat? (butcher)
How to teach your child Who questions?
With the flashcards below, your child learns to answer “who” questions like “who builds houses?” or “who flies the plane?” by choosing one picture from three options. Each flashcard includes a question at the top and three image options for the answer at the bottom.
To teach your child to answer “who” questions, lay the flashcard in front of him and ask the question on the flashcard. Your child should either name or point towards the right image.
This is a great exercise for speech therapy and ABA.
For durable materials, use a laminating machine to laminate the pdf file and storage envelopes to store the flashcards.
Download the pdf file
16 Who Questions Flashcards for Speech Therapy and ABA
Do you Want to practice more WH Questions?
You can find here great resources to practice more WH Questions in our Store
Are you looking for more resources to learn WH Questions?
Here is a complete guide to learning WH
Questions for beginners. In this guide, you will learn everything there is about WH questions; when to teach them, how to assess the child, how to teach them, and in which order, a list of 200 WH question examples, and other free resources to practice with your child.
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Keywords: Vocabulary, Special education, Early learning, Task Cards, Flashcards, WH Questions, What, Who, Where, When, Why, How, Forming sentences, ABA, ABLLS-R, Speech Therapy
