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Teaching where questions for speech therapy intervention can be a challenge, especially when there is never enough time in your day to plan effective therapy. I’m here to simplify your therapy by giving you an easy-to-follow plan when it comes to teaching where questions. 

After reading this post, you will have a structured speech therapy intervention plan for teaching where questions that you can implement tomorrow. Here is an overview of the 5 steps that will make you the expert at your school when it comes to writing and addressing those where question IEP goals. 

• Step 1: Start with pre-intervention data collection for where questions.
• Step 2: Analyze the data from Step 1 to determine where to start your intervention. 
• Step 3: Using the data from Step 2, write your student’s speech therapy goals.  
• Step 4: Implement therapy. 
• Step 5: Complete your post-intervention data collection.  

 

Note: This easy 5-step process is included in my Where Questions Flashcards resource. If you would like to skip the rest of this article and jump right into your intervention, click the picture below.

Step 1. Start with pre-intervention data collection for where questions.

Determining IEP goals and planning speech therapy intervention depends upon knowing how the student is currently performing with a specific skill. Using an informal WH question test for data collection in speech therapy is a must. 

If you don’t have a data collection tool for WH or WHERE questions, don’t worry. Download my FREE WH Questions Baseline Assessment today!

Here is a completed where questions baseline from my wh questions for speech therapy resource.  

Step 2. Analyze the data from Step 1 to determine where to start your intervention. 

Knowing where to start your where questions speech therapy intervention can sometimes be tricky. After completing the baseline assessment from step 1, use this free flow chart to help you analyze your data. This will help you determine your therapy plan. 

If you would like a free copy of this flow chart, click on the picture above to print your free copy.

There are three primary columns on the flow chart. Here is what each column means. 

1. Left Column: Focus on teaching prelinguistic skills and building receptive language. 
2. Middle Column: Work on teaching where questions. 
3. Right Column: Work on increasing vocabulary. Making IEP accommodations might also be appropriate.   

Step 3. Using the information from Step 2, write your student’s speech therapy goals.  

First, keep in mind normal where question development.

When planning where question speech therapy goals, it is important to keep in mind normal where question development. Here are the norms that I use from the resource Guide to Communication Milestones (Lanza, J. R. & Flahive, L. K., 2012). 

WHERE Question Development

• Looks in the direction of a person/object when asked a WHERE question (i.e., Where’s your blanket?): 1-2 years of age. 
• Answers by pointing to the location of a person/object/picture: 1-2 years of age. 
• Verbally answers WHERE questions: 2-3 years of age. 
• Answers complex WHERE questions (i.e., Where do you buy food?): 3-4 years of age.

Then, determine a starting point for speech therapy intervention. 

Using the flow chart from step 2, while keeping in mind normal where question development, determine your IEP goals.   

Left Column: Focus on prelinguistic goals and receptive language goals. 

Prelinguistic Goal for Joint Attention: The student will demonstrate joint attention in 8/10 trials when the adult points to/shows an object or talks about an immediate event (something that is happening in the child’s present environment).

Click here for more information on joint attention.

Prelinguistic Goal for Attending: The student will attend to a reading and/or play activity for ___ minutes with minimal adult support in 4/5 trials.

Receptive Language Goal for WH Questions (Play Based): The student will respond to WHO, WHAT, and/or WHERE questions during a play activity in 8/10 trials by pointing. 

Early Developing WHERE Questions Goal (Skill Based): The student will answer basic WHERE questions by pointing to the location of an item or person with 80% accuracy. (i.e., Where is your nose? Where is the chair?) 

Middle Column: Focus on teaching where questions. 

Although you can get very detailed with your IEP goals, I recommend keeping things simple. It’s important that other team members understand the student’s goals. Here are two simple where questions example goals. 

WHERE Questions Goal: The student will answer WHERE questions with 80% accuracy when picture choices are presented.

WHERE Questions Goal: The student will answer WHERE questions with 80% accuracy. (no picture choices)

If your student is working on generalizing where questions to conversational and reading comprehension tasks, these are some suggestions. 

WHERE Questions Conversational Speech Therapy Goal: The student will answer WHERE questions during conversation with 80% accuracy. 

WHERE Questions Reading Comprehension Speech Therapy Goal: The student will answer WHERE questions for reading comprehension tasks with 80% accuracy.  

Right Column: Increasing vocabulary to support answering where questions might be the best course of treatment. Considering IEP accommodations for addressing language complexity might also be appropriate.  

You might find that it is more appropriate to focus on accommodations and modifications to decrease the barriers that might exist when answering questions. Here is a list of possible accommodations and modifications. 

• Simplify questions by decreasing the amount of complex language used in the question.
• Supplement your verbal question with a picture scene or picture cue.
• Give the student visual or verbal choices of answers.

Step 4. Implement therapy.   

Now that you have your student’s IEP goals written, it’s time to get your speech therapy intervention tools ready. You might already have a resource that works well for addressing where question goals. However, if you are looking for a more comprehensive resource for teaching where questions, I have created a set of where questions flashcards that you can purchase. The materials featured in this section are from that resource. 

First, teach the skill.  

Explicit Instruction-

If the student is old enough, consider starting with explicit instruction when teaching a student to answer where questions. This is how I start each session. There is research in the area of grammar intervention that suggests combining explicit instruction with implicit instruction is more efficient than just implicit instruction alone. (Calder, S.D., Claessen, M., Ebbels, S. & Leitao, S., 2020) 

Directly teach your students that when they hear the word where in a question it refers to a location or place. 

Focused Implicit Instruction-

How do you teach children that aren’t ready for explicit instruction? For my students who cannot learn via explicit instruction, usually because they are too young, I use focused implicit instruction (a term I coined). Focused implicit instruction involves focusing the child’s attention on several trials of a target skill, with minimal environmental distractions. 

For example, I might use simple flashcards that require only a point to answer a question. Every flashcard repeats the same target WH question word, as well as the same grammatical structure. 

Then, practice the skill.  

There isn’t much research that I’ve come across in regards to a hierarchy for how to teach where questions. The following is based on my clinical experience and what I’ve found to be effective in teaching where questions for speech therapy intervention. Although this learning ladder provides a general hierarchy, you should always consider the student’s language profile when planning intervention. 

Here is the scope and sequence of my where questions flashcard resource.  

If the student is old enough, I use flashcards between turns of an open-ended game. The game motivates students to participate in a flashcard activity that would otherwise be a nonpreferred task. 

If the student is not old enough to participate in games, I might use flashcards during play activities.

1. Basic Where Question

First, address questions that the student can answer by pointing to a location. (This WH question example is from set 1 of my where questions flashcards resource.) If your student can already answer basic where questions, move on to intermediate where questions. 

Examples: Where is mommy? Where is the ball? 

Prerequisite Skills: The student needs to understand labels for objects and people. 

When asking simple where questions, make sure the referent/answer is familiar and visible. This task is easily practiced in daycare, preschool, and 4K/5K settings and can be incorporated into daily routines by adults that work with the student. 

If referents aren’t available during therapy sessions, use flashcards like the one below.  

2. Intermediate Where Questions

Next, address where questions that focus on describing a location. (This WH question example is from set 2 of the where questions flashcards resource.)

Example: Where is the cat sitting?

Prerequisite Skills: The student needs to think of the location of a person/object that is not visible and then use basic spatial concepts (i.e., in, on, under) to describe the location of the person or object.  

This set of flashcards provides visual support for practice.

3. Advanced Where Questions

Finally, I work on answering advanced where questions. Take into account each student’s abilities when using these flashcards. Some older PreK students might have sufficient vocabulary to answer these questions and others might not. (These WH question examples are from sets 3 and 4 of my where questions flashcards resource.)

Example: Where do children go to learn?

Prerequisite Skills: The student needs to have an understanding of specific locations and activities associated with those locations. 

First, I start by using flashcards with picture choices. Before moving on to the next set of cards, I might use these cards again but not show the picture choices. If the student has difficulty answering the question, I show the picture choices. This provides a nice scaffold before moving to flashcards without picture choices. 

Then, I move on to flashcards without picture choices.

Step 5. Complete your post-intervention data collection. 

When your session data suggests that the student has learned how to answer where questions, update the original baseline assessment. This provides you with data to report at the IEP meeting and/or on the progress report. If the student has met his or her goal, move on to the next skill. 

What is the ultimate goal for working on where questions?

It is important to note that during this process of teaching where questions for speech therapy, it’s essential to incorporate where questions into conversational and read-aloud activities. This is the overarching goal of working on questions- to be able to participate in a conversation and answer questions for academic tasks. 

If you are unsure of what your student’s accuracy is with answering WH and WHERE questions, get a free baseline tool . This will help you determine where you should start with intervention.

Wondering where you can get the WH question examples featured in this post? Get your own set of where questions flashcards to complement your therapy at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Other Related Posts:

4 Things To Consider Before Writing Speech Therapy WH Question Goals

5 Steps for Effectively Teaching Who Questions for Speech Therapy

5 Steps for Effectively Teaching What Questions in Speech Therapy

 

Resources:

Calder, S.D., Claessen, M., Ebbels, S., & Leitão, S. (2020). Explicit grammar intervention in young school-aged children with developmental language disorder: An efficacy study using single-case experimental design. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_LSHSS-19-00060

Calder, S. D., Claessen, M., Ebbels, S., & Leitão, S. (2020). The efficacy of an explicit intervention approach to improve past tense marking for early school-age children with developmental language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00132

Ebbels, S., & Owen Van Horne, A. (2020). Grammatical concepts of English: Suggested order of intervention. The Informed SLP. https://www.theinformedslp.com/review/the-grammar-guide-you-never-knew-you-always-wanted

Gaertner et al., (2008) Focused Attention in Toddlers: Measurement, Stability, and Relations to Negative Emotion and Parenting. Journal of Infant Child Development. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2607062/pdf/nihms-81608.pdf

Lanza, J. R. & Flahive, L. K. (2012) Guide to Communication Milestones. LinguiSystems. (https://www.carolinatherapeutics.com/wp-content/uploads/milestones-guide.pdf)