You ask your child, “What did you do at school today?”
They answer, “I don’t know.”
You ask, “Where are your shoes?”
They tell you what color their shoes are.
Their teacher asks, “Who did you sit with at lunch?”
Your child starts talking about what they ate.
Sometimes it can seem like a child isn’t listening or simply doesn’t want to answer. But for some children, difficulty answering questions can actually be related to receptive language—the ability to understand spoken language.
At BK Kids Pediatric Therapy in Joliet, IL, our Speech-Language Pathologists help children strengthen the language skills they need to understand questions, follow conversations, participate at school, and communicate more successfully during everyday life.
What Is Receptive Language?
Receptive language is essentially what a child understands.
When someone speaks to us, our brain has to process the words, understand their meaning, remember important information, and determine how to respond.
Children use receptive language throughout nearly every part of their day.
They need it to:
- Understand questions
- Follow directions
- Learn new vocabulary
- Understand stories
- Participate in conversations
- Follow classroom instruction
- Understand concepts such as before, after, first, last, under, and between
- Recognize what information someone is asking for
- Participate in play
- Complete everyday routines
A child can speak in sentences and still have difficulty understanding certain types of language.
That’s why receptive language challenges aren’t always immediately obvious.
Why Can Answering Questions Be So Difficult?
Consider a simple question:
“Where did you put your backpack?”
Before answering, your child needs to understand that where means they should provide information about a location.
Now compare that with:
“Why did you put your backpack there?”
The vocabulary is almost identical, but the expected answer is completely different.
Your child now needs to explain a reason.
Questions require children to identify what type of information is being requested and then retrieve the correct information to formulate an answer.
As questions become more complex, the language demands increase.
Understanding WH Questions
Children gradually learn to understand different types of questions.
Who
“Who” questions usually ask about a person.
Who drove you to school?
Who is your teacher?
What
“What” questions can ask about objects, actions, events, or information.
What are you eating?
What happened at recess?
Where
“Where” questions ask about location.
Where is your backpack?
Where did you go after school?
When
“When” questions involve time.
When do you brush your teeth?
When are we going to Grandma’s house?
Why
“Why” questions require children to understand and explain a reason or cause.
Why is the boy wearing a coat?
How
“How” questions can be especially complex because they may ask about a process, condition, quantity, or explanation.
How do you make a sandwich?
How did you know she was upset?
Children may understand some question types much more easily than others.
For example, a child might answer “what” questions consistently but struggle significantly with “why” and “how.”
Signs Your Child May Be Having Difficulty Understanding Questions
Parents may notice their child:
- Gives unrelated answers
- Repeats part of the question instead of answering
- Frequently says “I don’t know”
- Looks to another person for help before responding
- Answers “yes” or “no” when a different answer is expected
- Needs questions repeated several times
- Does better when shown a picture or visual
- Struggles with questions about something that happened earlier
- Has difficulty explaining events from their day
- Understands simple questions but becomes confused by longer ones
- Changes the subject rather than answering
- Appears to guess
This can sometimes look like inattention.
But the child may actually be struggling to process what was said and determine what response is expected.
“How Was School?” Can Be a Surprisingly Hard Question
Parents often ask:
“How was school today?”
And receive the classic response:
“Good.”
Then:
“What did you do?”
“I don’t know.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean your child doesn’t want to talk to you.
Think about everything that happened during an entire school day.
Your child has to mentally search through hours of experiences, decide which information is important, organize it, and put it into words.
That is a lot of language processing.
More specific questions can sometimes be easier.
Instead of:
“What did you do today?”
Try:
“What did you play at recess?”
or:
“Who sat next to you at lunch?”
or:
“What was one thing that made you laugh today?”
Providing a more specific target reduces the amount of information your child has to search through.
Receptive Language and Following Directions
Children who struggle to answer questions may also have difficulty following directions.
Imagine hearing:
“Before you get your shoes, put your cup in the sink and grab your backpack.”
Your child needs to understand the vocabulary, recognize the sequence, hold the information in memory, and then perform the actions.
If they only grab their shoes, it can look like they ignored you.
But several different skills may have contributed to the difficulty.
This is one reason it’s important to understand why a child is struggling rather than simply assuming they aren’t listening.
Receptive Language vs. Attention
Parents frequently wonder:
“Is my child not understanding me, or are they just not paying attention?”
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell.
Attention and language processing can also affect one another.
A child may understand short directions perfectly but lose information when directions become longer.
Another child may attend well but still misunderstand certain vocabulary or grammatical concepts.
And some children may have difficulty with both attention and language processing.
A Speech-Language Pathologist can help determine whether receptive language skills may be contributing to the challenges you’re seeing.
When sensory processing, regulation, executive functioning, or attention are also affecting participation, an Occupational Therapist may address those areas as part of the child’s broader therapy plan.
Receptive Language in the Classroom
As children get older, classroom language becomes increasingly complex.
A teacher might say:
“After you finish the worksheet, put it in the blue basket, take out your reading book, and meet your group on the carpet.”
The child must process multiple pieces of information while surrounded by classroom distractions.
Receptive language skills also affect a child’s ability to:
- Understand lessons
- Follow classroom routines
- Answer teacher questions
- Understand new vocabulary
- Follow multi-step directions
- Understand stories
- Identify important information
- Participate in group activities
- Complete assignments independently
A child may know the academic material but still struggle because they misunderstood the instructions.
Why Visuals Can Help
Many children benefit when spoken language is paired with visual information.
Visuals might include:
- Pictures
- Written directions
- Checklists
- Gestures
- Demonstrations
- First-then boards
- Visual schedules
Spoken words disappear immediately after we say them.
A visual remains available.
That gives the child additional time to process the information without needing to hold every part of the instruction in memory.
Using visuals isn’t “making things too easy.”
It’s providing another way for the child to access and understand information.
How Parents Can Help at Home
There are several simple ways parents can support language comprehension during everyday routines.
Give Processing Time
Ask the question and wait.
Some children need several additional seconds to process what they heard and formulate an answer.
Repeating or rephrasing the question immediately can actually give them even more language to process.
Make Questions More Specific
Instead of:
“What happened today?”
Try:
“What game did you play in gym?”
Use Visual Information
Point, gesture, demonstrate, or show your child what you mean when appropriate.
Break Long Directions Into Smaller Pieces
Instead of giving four instructions at once, start with one or two.
As your child becomes more successful, gradually increase the complexity.
Check Understanding
Instead of asking:
“Do you understand?”
Try:
“What are you going to do first?”
Children may say “yes” even when they aren’t completely sure what they’re supposed to do.
Read Together
Books provide excellent opportunities to practice comprehension.
You might ask:
“Who is this story about?”
“Where are they going?”
“Why is she upset?”
“What do you think will happen next?”
Keep it conversational rather than turning reading time into a quiz.
How Speech Therapy Can Help
Speech Therapy for receptive language should be individualized to the child’s specific needs.
A Speech-Language Pathologist may work on:
- Understanding WH questions
- Following directions
- Understanding vocabulary
- Learning spatial and temporal concepts
- Understanding increasingly complex sentences
- Listening comprehension
- Sequencing information
- Understanding stories
- Identifying important details
- Making inferences
- Understanding classroom language
At BK Kids, these skills can be practiced through play, games, books, movement, crafts, toys, and activities that are meaningful to the child.
A child may practice “where” questions while hiding toy animals around the room.
Another child may practice multi-step directions while completing an obstacle course.
An older child might practice identifying important information while reading a short story or completing a game.
The activity may look like play—but the therapist is intentionally targeting the underlying communication skill.
When Should I Consider a Speech Therapy Evaluation?
Occasionally misunderstanding a question or forgetting a direction is normal.
An evaluation may be worth considering when difficulties happen frequently and begin affecting your child’s ability to communicate, learn, participate at school, or complete everyday routines.
You may want to speak with a Speech-Language Pathologist if your child consistently:
- Has difficulty answering age-appropriate questions
- Gives unrelated answers
- Needs frequent repetition
- Struggles to follow directions
- Has difficulty understanding stories
- Becomes confused by longer sentences
- Has trouble learning new vocabulary
- Relies heavily on watching other children to know what to do
- Becomes frustrated when asked questions
- Has difficulty explaining what happened during their day
An evaluation can help determine which specific language skills are challenging and whether Speech Therapy would be beneficial.
Pediatric Speech Therapy in Joliet, IL
When a child doesn’t answer a question correctly or doesn’t follow a direction, it can be tempting to assume they weren’t listening.
Sometimes the real challenge is more complicated.
They may have heard every word—but still need help understanding, processing, remembering, or organizing the information.
At BK Kids Pediatric Therapy, our pediatric Speech-Language Pathologists help children strengthen receptive and expressive language skills through individualized, engaging therapy.
Our Occupational Therapists can also support children when sensory processing, regulation, motor skills, executive functioning, or other developmental skills are affecting their ability to participate successfully in everyday activities.
We want children to build meaningful skills while having fun, feeling successful, and enjoying therapy.
BK Kids Pediatric Therapy is located in Joliet, Illinois, and serves families throughout Joliet, Plainfield, Shorewood, New Lenox, Lockport, Romeoville, Minooka, Channahon, Morris, Bolingbrook, Naperville, Oswego, Yorkville, Wilmington, and surrounding communities.
Have concerns about how your child understands questions, directions, or everyday conversations? Contact BK Kids Pediatric Therapy to learn more about a pediatric Speech Therapy evaluation.