Examples & Help for WH Questions: Who, What, Where, etc.

Discover what WH Questions are (with examples) and how to helps survivors understand them.

WH questions start with W or H (and often Wh).  So WH has become a shorthand for speech therapists to refer to them.

WH questions start with:

WH Question Examples

CUE: Jane is riding her bike to the store to get some milk.
Q: How is she getting to the store?

On a bike

At 5pm

To get milk

The answer is On a Bike.

But you don't need to have a narrative (the Cue above).  It's sufficient to have the patient choose an answer that is appropriate for the question.  In fact, it can help them focus more on the WH word.

Example of a simplified WH question

 

Answer:   8:00 PM  (this is an example from a treatment program: Understanding Questions )

Answering WH Questions in speech therapy is very difficult

WH words are harder to understand than Nouns and Verbs, but I didn't know why. (Pun intended!) In search of an answer, I interviewed Dr. Rich Katz, a who pioneered research into Aphasia therapy software and particularly on WH questions. He developed the first software program to work on WH questions. It was so long it ago it was on the Apple IIe, if you remember that computer from the 70s!

Nouns are the easiest for those with aphasia to retrieve and process. Verbs are a little harder.  WH questions are the much harder because they are not as concrete and it's easy to confuse them (Who for What, etc.). And WHY and WHEN are the hardest.

View more about why they are challenging

Compare how challenging the WHEN question above was to this question:

What is this picture?

WH Question words are difficult because they

• Sound similar (phonemically related) : What, Where, etc.
• Look similar
• Are conceptual, not concrete.
  Think about finding a picture to represent a Noun or Verb (Dog, or Barking). Now try to come up with a picture (with no text or symbols)  for Why. There is nothing you can point to in the real world that would cause someone to come up with the word (or concept, really) Why.  If I'm wrong, please post a picture for WHY in the comments below.
• Are more like each other than to like other more common (and easier) words like Nouns and Verbs.
  
  
  

It's like reaching into your brain for the word WHY (either to say it or to comprehend it's meaning).  You have to "reach further" to get to it than to get a Noun or Verb. And it's easy to confuse WHO with WHY because they are grouped together by meaning

So if you reach into your brain it's easy to accidentally pick up  a WHO instead of a WHY.

How to teach WH Questions

Teaching WH Questions is more about the feedback than the questions.  The simplest type of WH exercise is a question and several choices, with one correct and several foils (incorrect answers). To make it particularly challenging, make the foils answers to different WH questions.

Example of Hints for WHY questions:

Why is she going to the store?

• On a bike (How)
• At 5pm (When)
• To get milk. (Why))

On a correct answer, just tell them they got it right : Yes, she is going to the store to get milk.
If they get it wrong, explain the question:

Why means a reason.

If they miss it again, provide help and the answer:

Why means a reason.
The Reason is To Get Milk

WH Questions Chart of Hints

You can practice these (for reading or listening) in Bungalow's Understanding Questions program. It has 200,000+exercises.  Of, if you don't have a Windows PC, you use MoreSpeech.com

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