Why Does My Child Have Trouble Answering Questions? Signs of a Language Disorder
You ask your child, “What did you do at school today?”
“I don’t know.”
You try something more specific. “What did you do in science?”
“Stuff.”
Later, you find out that the class did a science experiment that your child participated in and probably could tell you about—but getting that information from them feels almost impossible.
Of course, plenty of children give short answers when their parents ask about school. That alone does not mean that a child has a language disorder.
However, if you notice that your child frequently has difficulty answering questions, explaining what happened, finding the right words, or organizing their thoughts, there may be more going on.
As a speech-language pathologist, I often look at why answering questions is difficult.
Sometimes the child does not fully understand the question. Sometimes they know the answer but cannot find the words they need. Other times, they have the information but have difficulty organizing it into a clear response.
These can all be signs of an underlying language disorder.
Why Is Answering Questions So Difficult for Some Children?
Answering a question actually requires quite a bit of language.
Think about what happens when someone asks: “Why did the boy bring his umbrella to school?”
First, the child has to understand that why means they are being asked for a reason.
Then they have to understand the rest of the sentence, remember the relevant information, determine the answer, find the words they want to use, and organize those words into a sentence.
A child may have difficulty at any one of those points.
For example, one child may respond with information that is related to the topic but does not actually answer the question.
Another child may know the answer but say: “Because...um...the thing...because it was...you know...”
Another may simply say: “I don’t know.”
These children can look very different, even though language may be contributing to each child’s difficulty.
Signs Your Child May Be Struggling With Language
A language disorder does not necessarily mean that a child does not talk very much.
Some children with language difficulties are actually very talkative.
What parents may notice instead is that their child has difficulty using language effectively.
For example, your child may:
frequently answer “I don’t know” to questions
give very short or vague answers
answer a different question than the one that was asked
use words such as stuff, thing, or that instead of more specific vocabulary
know what they want to say but have difficulty finding the word
have trouble explaining what happened during their day
tell stories that are difficult to follow
leave out important information when telling a story
jump from one part of a story to another
have difficulty explaining how to do something
struggle with “why” or “how” questions
have difficulty following longer or more complicated directions
misunderstand figurative or nonliteral language
have difficulty making inferences
struggle to summarize something they heard or read
understand a topic but have difficulty explaining what they know
These difficulties can show up differently from one child to another. A child does not need to demonstrate every one of these signs to have a language difficulty.
“But My Child Talks All the Time. How Could They Have a Language Disorder?”
This is something I think is particularly important for parents to understand.
Being able to talk a lot is not the same as being able to use language effectively.
A child may speak in long sentences and have conversations with family members but still struggle when language becomes more complicated.
For example, imagine asking a child: “Tell me how you play your favorite game.”
The child knows exactly how to play it. They may play it every day.
But their explanation sounds something like: “First you do this, and then you get that thing, and then he goes there, but you can’t do it until after that other thing.”
The child has the knowledge. The difficulty is communicating that knowledge clearly enough for someone else to understand.
That is very different from not knowing the answer.
Receptive Language vs. Expressive Language
When I evaluate a child who has difficulty answering questions, I want to determine where the difficulty is occurring.
Receptive language refers to understanding language.
A child with receptive language difficulties may struggle to understand:
questions
directions
complex sentences
vocabulary
stories
classroom instruction
figurative language
information that is implied rather than directly stated
Expressive language refers to using language to communicate thoughts and ideas.
A child with expressive language difficulties may struggle to:
find the right words
formulate complete sentences
use age-appropriate grammar
explain an idea
retell an event
organize a story
provide enough information
answer questions clearly
Some children primarily struggle in one area, while others have difficulties with both receptive and expressive language.
Why Does My Child Say “I Don’t Know” So Much?
There are many reasons a child might say “I don’t know,” so I would never assume that frequent “I don’t know” responses automatically mean a language disorder.
Sometimes a child really does not know.
Sometimes they are tired.
Sometimes they do not feel like talking.
But for some children, “I don’t know” becomes an easier response than trying to formulate what they want to say.
Imagine knowing exactly what happened at recess but struggling to figure out where to begin, which details are important, what words to use, and how to put everything into the right order.
Saying “I don’t know” requires much less language.
That is why I pay attention to the bigger picture.
Does the child only say “I don’t know” when asked what happened at school, or do they also have trouble explaining stories, answering comprehension questions, following directions, finding words, or explaining their ideas?
A pattern tells us much more than one behavior.
Why Can Language Difficulties Become More Obvious at School?
Language demands change considerably as children get older.
A younger child may be asked: “What color is the dog?”
A school-age child may be asked: “Why do you think the character made that decision? Use information from the story to explain your answer.”
Those are very different language demands.
As children progress through school, they are expected to understand more complicated vocabulary and sentences, follow longer directions, make inferences, explain their reasoning, compare ideas, summarize information, tell organized stories, and learn new information through language.
This is one reason some language difficulties become much more noticeable once children enter school.
A child who could compensate when language was simpler may have much more difficulty once those demands increase.
Language Difficulties Can Affect Reading Comprehension Too
Language is also closely connected to reading comprehension.
Sometimes a parent tells me: “My child can read the whole page perfectly, but when I ask what it was about, they have no idea.”
Reading the words and understanding the words are not the same skill.
A child may be able to decode the words on the page but have difficulty understanding vocabulary, connecting ideas, identifying the important information, making inferences, or summarizing what they read.
For example, after reading a story, a child may successfully answer: “What was the boy’s name?” but struggle with: “Why do you think the boy was nervous?”
The first question asks for information that was directly stated. The second requires the child to use clues from the story to make an inference.
If your child can read the words but struggles to understand what they read, you can also read Why Can’t I Understand What I Read? Simple Solutions to Improve Your Reading Skills.
Could It Just Be Attention?
Sometimes.
Attention, memory, language, and learning can interact, and it is important not to assume that every child who has difficulty answering questions has a language disorder.
A child who was not attending to a direction obviously may not be able to follow it.
But there is an important question I often ask: Did the child not listen, or did the child listen but not fully understand?
Those can look very similar from the outside.
For example, a teacher gives the direction: “Before you put your worksheet in your folder, underline your name and bring your book to the carpet.”
A child does not follow it.
It is easy to conclude, “He wasn’t paying attention.”
Maybe he wasn’t.
But perhaps he heard the direction and had difficulty understanding the sentence, remembering the information, or understanding the order in which the steps needed to happen.
That is why looking at patterns across different situations is important.
What Does a Speech-Language Evaluation Look At?
When I evaluate a child for a possible language disorder, I don’t want to know only whether they can answer questions on a standardized test.
I want to understand how that child uses language in everyday life.
Depending on the child’s age and the concerns, I may look at areas such as:
understanding and using vocabulary
word retrieval
understanding questions
answering different types of questions
following directions
grammar and sentence formulation
understanding complex sentences
making inferences
understanding stories
retelling stories and personal experiences
organizing information
explaining ideas
reading comprehension when appropriate
I also consider what parents and teachers are seeing.
A child may perform differently in a quiet one-on-one testing environment than they do in a classroom where language is faster, directions are longer, and there are many competing demands.
The goal of an evaluation is not simply to produce a test score. It is to determine whether there is a language difficulty, where the breakdown is occurring, and how it is affecting the child’s everyday communication and learning.
How Can Speech Therapy Help a Child With Language Difficulties?
Speech therapy for language disorders looks different depending on what a child needs. One child may need help understanding and using vocabulary. Another may need help answering questions. Another may have a strong vocabulary but struggle to organize their thoughts into a clear story.
Therapy might work on skills such as vocabulary, sentence formulation, following directions, answering questions, inferencing, narrative language, explaining and describing, and reading comprehension.
For example, if a child has difficulty answering why questions, I would not want them simply memorizing answers to a stack of “why” questions. I want them to understand what a why question is asking and learn how to identify the relevant information and formulate an appropriate response.
Similarly, if a child has difficulty telling stories, the goal isn’t simply to tell one particular story correctly. I want them to understand how stories are organized so they can eventually apply those skills when telling me about something that happened at school, explaining a movie to a friend, completing a classroom assignment, or writing a story.
The goal is for the skills we work on in speech therapy to carry over into the situations in which the child actually needs them.
When Should I Be Concerned?
Every child occasionally misunderstands a question, forgets a word, gives a vague answer, or tells a story that goes completely off track.
I would be more concerned when these difficulties happen frequently or begin interfering with school, conversations, reading, writing, or the child’s ability to communicate what they know.
You may want to consider a speech-language evaluation if you frequently find yourself thinking: “I know my child knows this. Why can’t they explain it?” or: “Why is it so hard for my child to tell me what happened?”
You do not need to figure out whether the difficulty is receptive language, expressive language, reading comprehension, attention, vocabulary, or something else before contacting a speech-language pathologist.
Determining what is contributing to the difficulty is part of the evaluation process.
Speech and Language Therapy in Skokie and the Chicago North Shore
If your child has difficulty answering questions, explaining their thoughts, following directions, telling stories, or understanding language, a speech-language evaluation can help determine whether an underlying language difficulty may be contributing.
I provide individualized speech-language evaluations and therapy for children in Skokie and surrounding Chicago North Shore communities, as well as online speech therapy in Illinois and New York.
My goal is not simply to help a child answer therapy questions correctly. It is to help them communicate more effectively in the situations that matter—at home, at school, and with other people.
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If you are unsure whether your child’s difficulties are something speech therapy can address,
