Resource developed by Mani Sehdev
“The most interesting conversations with children are often those that result from a sequence of open-ended questions that move the discussion and reveal responses that you would never have imagined”.

Using open-ended questions is a wonderful way to stretch children’s curiosity, reasoning ability, creativity and independence. Asking open-ended questions gives adults an opportunity to see what a child is thinking and feeling. A question like, “What color is that block?” evokes a one-word answer. An open-ended question like, “Tell me about the blocks you are using,” encourages children to use their language to describe the blocks or what they are doing. There is no right or wrong answer to an open-ended question, so all children can be successful in answering them.

 

Why ask open-ended questions:

 

Using open-ended questions has many benefits:

 

  • Encourages children to think beyond the obvious.
  • Encourages children to think of as many possibilities as they can, before deciding upon the best or most appropriate answer.
  • Increases co-operation and understanding.
  • Allows children to include more information, feelings, attitudes and understanding of the topic.
  • Provides children with opportunities to explain or describe something, thereby expanding and developing their speech, language and vocabulary.
  • Can require children to recall a recent or past event which develops their short and long-term memory skills.
  • Requires adults to listen attentively to children’s responses and this shows the children that what they are saying is important.

Starting open-ended questions:

 

Here are a few ways to start an open-ended question:

 

  • What would happen if…
  • What do you think about…
  • I wonder…
  • In what way…
  • Tell me about…
  • How can we…
  • What would you do…
  • How did you…
  • Why do you think…