How to Ask Your Child Open-Ended Questions During Reading

̶0;If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales," Albert Einstein once said. "If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." What Einstein left out, though, was mention of the importance of engaging children in the process, too. Adding open-ended questions to reading time challenges children to think and ignites their imaginations. Reading together can help children transition into big kids and big thinkers.

Things You'll Need

  • Engaging books

Instructions

  1. Let the Fun Continue After the Last Page

    • 1

      Don't end the story just because you reach the last page. Asking children open-ended questions is an effective way to help elicit fresh ideas, strengthen reasoning ability, stretch curiosity and build knowledge together. Open-ended questions are those with no right or wrong answers. Most picture books offer ample opportunities to pose open-ended questions. When you finish reading, ask questions such as "Why do you think that happened," "What would you do if you were in that situation" or "What do you think will happen next?" Such questions give children an opportunity to use expanded vocabulary to to better develop conversational skills.

    • 2

      Listen attentively and respond to all questions your children have during and after reading time. Just as adults want to be listened to, so do children. Not only will this help encourage children's conversation skills, but it will show them their comments are important. Even if a book doesn't have much text, there are still many opportunities to engage young listeners. Ask your child to make up a new character -- what would he look like? If a character is misbehaving, use this opportunity to ask -- or teach -- what a better behavior would be. Regardless of your method, creating a dialog while reading brings your child closer to important reading milestones.

    • 3

      Create other opportunities for engagement if your child provides one-word responses to your open-ended questions. Ask follow-up questions beginning with "why" or "how." Some children may be nervous to ask questions, so take pauses between pages to create pockets of time where they feel encouraged to engage with the text and the reader. According to Scholastic, the years between ages 3 and 5 are critical for reading growth. With many children starting kindergarten by the age of 5, it is important to instill a love for reading in young ones before they enter school so they feel prepared.

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