Asking questions

Also called Question words, Wh-questions, Interrogatives

Who, what, where, when, why. People who use boards are asked questions all day and almost never given the means to ask one back. Here is how to change that.

What it is

Asking questions means having the words to find things out: who, what, where, when, why, how, which, plus the phrases that soften them ("can I", "is it", "do you"). On a device, a question word followed by an ordinary word is enough: "where" plus "Mum", "why" plus "no", "what" plus "that".

Most people who use boards are on the receiving end of questions all day: do you want this, are you ready, is it this one. A board without question words makes that permanent. The person can answer but never ask, which is a strange way to live.

Who it can help

Anyone who can combine two words, and arguably anyone at all, because "what?" on its own is a question. Question words matter for children, who learn by asking, and for adults, who have a right to know what is happening to them. They are crucial in hospital and in care, where "why" and "when" are the difference between being informed and being processed; see communication in hospital.

They are harder than requests to teach, because the reward is an answer rather than a biscuit, and an answer only rewards a person who was curious. Give them the words anyway. Curiosity does not appear until there is something to do with it.

How it works

Question words are abstract, so their symbols are conventional rather than pictorial, and the printed label carries them. Most boards group them together and colour them alike. Rising intonation is not available to a synthetic voice in any reliable way, so a question is made recognisable by its first word and by the listener's attention.

A question needs an answer to be worth asking, so the mechanism is partly the partner's. When "where" plus "Dad" is pressed, "at work" is the whole lesson. When it is ignored or answered with "what do you mean?", the word dies on the board.

The Talk board has question openers among its sentence starters, so "where is" or "what is" is one press and the next card finishes it.

Getting started

This week, ask the person questions on their own board, pressing "where" and "what" as you say them, and answer your own questions when they cannot. Then leave gaps where a question would be natural: hide the biscuits and press "where" with a puzzled face.

Add "why" even if you think the person is not ready. "Why" plus "no" is the most useful protest in the language.

Answer every question that is asked, at once, honestly and briefly. That is how the person learns questions work.

Where to get help

Speech and Language UK explains the order in which question words usually develop in children. Communication Matters for AAC vocabulary. A speech and language therapist can target the questions the person needs most.