Asking questions is an essential skill for children to learn. Does your child know how to ask simple questions to communicate their wants and needs? Do they use questions to acquire information or promote back and forth conversation? Some children may struggle with expressive language skills and may need assistance when developing the skill of asking questions. Common board games are a great tool to help your child ask and respond to questions.
Guess Who?
Guess Who is a two-person game centered around being able to ask your opponent questions to predict which mystery person they have. During this game, your child works on forming yes/no questions to narrow down the possible 24 characters that the opponent may possess. Your child will also work on improving their use of adjectives in this game. The questions asked in the game tend to be repetitive and change only a key detail. Repetitive questions can help provide structure as the child is learning to ask questions.
Go Fish
Go Fish is a wonderful game for younger children learning how to play a structured game. During Go Fish you are able to target turn taking, identifying categories, recall as well as formulating questions. During the game, children must follow the detailed rules to know when to get a card from an opponent or draw a card. This game is wonderful when beginning to develop the concept of asking questions since the questions tend to be repetitive.
HedBanz
Hedbanz is similar to Guess Who. The child uses yes/no questions to predict the unknown item. Hedbanz offers a wider range of categories compared to Guess Who. This allows there to be less repetition in the generated questions. The child has a picture card placed on their head facing their peers. They then ask the group yes/no questions to help predict the item on their head. This game is another opportunity for the child to work on their descriptive skills. A great feature of Hedbanz is the variety in the sample questions provided for when a child is stumped. Categories can also be addressed in this game since there is a wide variety of items (animals, food, etc.).
Uno
Uno is a wonderful tool for asking questions. When your child feels like their turn is over, they may be asked questions to ensure they do not have a possible play in their hand. In Uno, each color can be assigned a different type of question to be asked:
- Red- What is your favorite…?
- Blue- Would you rather?
- Green- When did you last…?
- Yellow- Ask a peer a question
This is a wonderful game to help promote asking open-ended questions. Uno can be used as a get to know you game when engaging with unfamiliar peers.
Milestones for Answering Questions
Milestones for Asking Questions:
Blog by:
Jamie Bone – SLPA
(Speech Language Pathologist Assistant)
