7 Reasons to Ask Your Child Good Questions

How was school? Good.
What did you do? Play.
Did your teacher read a story? Yes.

Tired of one word answers from your preschooler? Want to learn more about your child’s school day? First things first, ask better questions. Open-ended questioning is a helpful parenting skill for a variety of reasons.

7 Reasons to Ask Your Child Good Questions 
1.  The child is given an opportunity to think and answer with more than just yes or no.
2.  In describing the experiences, the child can include details of the day aiding in the development of short-term and long-term memory.
3.  Asking questions provides a way for the child to express feelings and for the parent to be able to help the child identify emotions and needs.
4.  Language skills and vocabulary are expanding as they child converses with the parent.
5.  The parent receives a more detailed account of the day.
6. The child learns the skills of conversing with others; listening and speaking.
7. Most importantly, the child will feel loved and heard when Mom and Dad ask and want to hear about the school day.

Here are a few examples of open ended questions to learn more about the activities the child participated in at school.
What did you do after circle time this morning?
Who did you play with today? What did you play? 
What new stations did the teacher have open for your class?
Did you build anything with the blocks? What did you build?
What was your favorite part of the school day? Why?

Keep good listening skills in mind.
• Eye contact.
• Repeat back what the child says.
• Ask other questions to learn more about a specific aspects of the day.
• Be interested.
• Avoid multi-tasking.

Children learn communication skills from conversing with others, starting with mom and dad. Take the time to ask good questions and listen. You’ll learn about your child’s day from his perspective. And your child will be learning too![ctt template=”2″ link=”v3m9U” via=”yes” ]7 Reasons to Ask Your Child Good Questions [/ctt]

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