Children with Autism generally have a tendency to confuse between ‘wh’ questions. For example, a child may answer a ‘what’ question when a ‘where’ question is to be asked. It is sometimes suggested that this confusion happens because of poor ‘auditory discrimination’, which means a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder don’t differentiate the words.

How to prepare a child to answer ‘where’ questions

When we ask a ‘where’ question, our expectation must be a location or destination. To answer such questions, the child is expected to know names of locations (e.g. table, rooms, shops etc.) along with prepositions (close, at, next to, near, on, in, under etc.).

To answer to ‘where’ questions we begin with teaching table top spatial concepts to the child.

Example: Place a green cup near the red cup and ask the child ‘where’ the green cup is?

Expected answer: The green cup is next to the red cup or the green cup is on the table.

Once these are taught, a child should know to report a place he/she visited. In addition to the above, the child should also learn to answer questions like ‘where are you’.

How to prepare a child to answer ‘what’ questions

When we ask ‘what’ questions, our certainty concerns – things, actions, events/experiences. In case of early language intervention, children initially learn to answer ‘what’ questions related to colors, shapes, functions, actions, size, naming objects etc. Then the child must be taught to answer ‘what-action’ questions such as ‘what are you doing’ ‘what did you do’. It is also important to teach children to memorize response to factually based ‘wh’ questions. For example, to be able to answer a question like ‘what is the color of an apple’, the child should know memorized facts like colors, shapes etc.

A Speech Language Pathologist can play significant role in helping a child to learn ‘wh’ questions. Jewel Autism Centre located in Kottayam, Kerala has the biggest team of professionals in India with Speech therapists, Special Educators and Occupational Therapists.