Are Questions Really Important?
Do you know that questions play an important role in your communication with your children and students?
Questions are important. They help you understand what the child is thinking and can help you gauge their understanding of a lesson or discussion. In addition, questioning helps you delve into your little ones mind and teach you many things you did not know about your child. It helps you learn many new things too about your child, such as their likes, dislikes fear and successes!
Questioning is also a form of communication and relationship building. That means it helps you form a stronger bond with the child. How is that done? By simply questioning a child you show you care and want to know more about them.
Enough with the introduction what type of questions am I talking about? And when can you ask questions.
Questions can be asked any place anytime and anywhere, just make sure not to overdo it and frustrate the child!
Great time to ask child friendly Questions:
- lunch or dinner time
- after reading a book
- after teaching a lesson
- during/ after a class trip/ vacation or activity
- when children show you their art work
- when children pose a question to you
Examples of great questions to ask a child:
- What did you do yesterday?
- How would you feel if the character in the book did….?
- When would be a good time to copy the characters in the book,and why?
- What do you think will happen to the character in the book if he does…?
- Who was your favorite character in the book, why?
- What was your favorite part of the trip, why?
- What did you draw? ( don’t tell them, “oh I see you drew water and a house!”- ask!)
- …”my favorite color is red, what is yours?”
You may notice a pattern with the questionings. Most of the questions begin with the w’s: who, what, where, when and why. The w questions along with how allow children to expand on your question without there being one correct answer. This allows children to think before responding and each of them can answer differently, yet still have a great response to the question posed!
This works great supper time, when my children are sitting around the table, I like to ask them what their favorite part of the day was and why. There are so many great questions to ask!
Once you get into the routine of asking questions, children will get used to responding. This is turn will build a stronger bond with them as you learn more about them and hear what they have to say.
Go ahead, ask away!