Which of the following questions is open-ended?

• A. Do you like your car color?
• B. Would you rather paint with blue or red?
• C. How did you decide what color to make your car?
• D. Is this color your favorite?

Answer: (C)

Open-ended questions invite more than a yes-or-no answer and encourage children to explain their thoughts, feelings, and reasoning. The best choice is the one that asks how you decided what color to make your car because it requires describing a process—what influenced the decision, what steps or factors were considered, and what the choice means to the child. This stimulates conversation, helps you see how the child thinks about options, and supports language and social development.

The other questions tend to elicit brief, constrained responses like yes or no or a single preference (for example, choosing blue or red). Those prompts limit what the child can share and don’t invite explanation about their thinking.