🌟 Building WH-Question Skills with Sorting Mats + Picture Cards

WH Question Sorting Mats with picture cards and sentence strips for teaching who and what questions—perfect for speech therapy and early learners.

A Simple, Hands-On Activity for Speech & Language Learning

Teaching WH-questions can feel challenging—especially when learners need repeated practice to understand who, what, and what are these. That’s why simple, visual, hands-on activities can make such a big difference. Today I’m sharing how I use my WH Question Sorting Mats along with picture cards, sentence cards, and simple sentence strips to build confident communicators in a fun and structured way.

💬 Why WH-Questions Matter

Understanding WH-questions is an essential part of early language development. When children can answer questions like Who’s this? What’s this? What are these?, they begin to:

label objects and people
understand categories
describe what they see
form complete sentences
build stronger conversational skills

But most importantly—they feel successful when they can answer independently.

🧩 What’s Included in the Activity

To keep learning visual and clear, I use three main materials:

1. WH Question Sorting Mats

Who’s this?
What’s this?
What are these?
Each mat acts as a visual “anchor” so kids know exactly what kind of answer is expected.

2. Picture Cards With Sentences

These cards show an image and a simple sentence underneath it.
For example:

🧍‍♂️ “It's Suzan.”
🐱 “It's a cat.”
🧦 “These are socks.”

These are perfect for modeling correct answers and supporting emerging readers.

3. Simple Sentence Cards

These cards break the language down even further.
Examples:

“a dog”
“a spoon”
“two apples”
These are great for sorting activities, matching, and expanding utterances.

🎯 How I Use Them During Sessions

Here are a few easy, low-prep ways to bring everything together:

⭐ 1. Basic Sorting

Students pull a picture card and place it onto the correct WH mat.
This helps them visually connect the question to the answer type.

⭐ 2. Picture Card + Sentence Card Match

Place simple sentence cards in a pile and picture cards in another pile.
Students match the picture to the correct sentence.
(This is amazing for early readers and for building confidence!)