What, Who, Where, When Is It?

Music Therapy question asking songs for special needs individuals.
Goal: Client will seek information by asking appropriate questions:
What is it? Who is it? Where is it? When is it?
Domains: Language, Speech, Academic, Social

Educators spend so much effort assessing a student’s ability to answer questions, we sometimes forget how much learning can take place when a student asks questions. These songs provide the structure of scripted phrases for a student to begin to ask what, who, where, and when questions.

Each song comes in 4 versions. The lyrics for version 1,
“What Is It? 4X” are:

If you don’t know
What it is
You can ask
“What is it?”

This is repeated four times, hence the 4X. The student’s part is the last line, “What is it?” This is further illustrated by version 2 “What Is It? 4X (fill-in-the-blank)”

If you don’t know
What it is
You can ask
…

A good way to transition from just singing the song to functional communication is through the use of common object flashcards. Begin with several your student can easily identify and then start throwing in some that they don’t know. At this point they should ask you “what is it?” If they don’t, use song version 3, “What Is It 1X” which contains the sung prompt and the exact question they should be asking. After some practice you should be able to move on to song version 4, “What Is It 1X (fill-in-the-blank)” which does not provide a model of the question they are to ask. Eventually the goal is for students to ask the question independently without any musical prompts.

There are 4 versions for each “WH” question: WHat, WHo, WHere, and WHen. Many students struggle to understand the difference between these “WH” words, so at first they should probably be practiced on different occasions. For WHo you may identify community helpers, for WHere you could use maps, and for WHen you could discuss holidays.

Given enough practice with each question in isolation, the hope is that the difference between what, who, where, and when will become clear to a student and they will independently ask these questions to seek information and aid in their own education.

The ability to ask questions is also an important social skill. Individuals with autism don’t commonly volunteer information about themselves or ask peers about their thoughts or feelings. Learning to ask questions is a great way for people with autism to connect with others and make new friends.

Download includes:

• 16 songs [mp3 audio files]
  • What Is It? 4X
  • What Is It? 4X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • What Is It? 1X
  • What Is It? 1X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • Who Is It? 4X
  • Who Is It? 4X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • Who Is It? 1X
  • Who Is It? 1X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • Where Is It? 4X
  • Where Is It? 4X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • Where Is It? 1X
  • Where Is It? 1X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • When Is It? 4X
  • When Is It? 4X (fill-in-the-blank)
  • When Is It? 1X
  • When Is It? 1X (fill-in-the-blank)
• 4 Lyrics [PDF]
  • What Is It?
  • Who Is It?
  • Where Is It?
  • When Is It?
• 4 Lyrics & Chords [PDF]
  • What Is It?
  • Who Is It?
  • Where Is It?
  • When Is It?

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