Child Development and Learning Flashcards
7 cards from real ECE practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Child Development and Learning flashcards as text
Which theorist described children as 'little scientists' who actively construct knowledge through exploration and experimentation?
Answer: Jean Piaget
Piaget viewed children as active constructors of knowledge who build understanding by interacting with their environment, not passive recipients of information.
Social referencing, in which an infant looks at a caregiver's face to determine how to react to a new situation, typically emerges around:
Answer: 8–12 months
Social referencing emerges around 8–12 months alongside stranger anxiety and object permanence, reflecting growing social-emotional awareness.
Which approach to early childhood education emphasizes child-led exploration through sensory materials and self-correcting manipulatives?
Answer: Montessori
The Montessori method uses specially designed, self-correcting materials and emphasizes child-directed activity in a prepared environment.
A child who cannot understand that rolling a ball of clay into a snake shape does not change its amount is failing to demonstrate:
Answer: Conservation
Conservation is the understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape or appearance; it typically develops in the concrete operational stage.
According to Albert Bandura's social learning theory, children most effectively learn new behaviors through:
Answer: Observation and imitation of models
Bandura demonstrated that children learn by observing others and imitating their behavior, even without direct reinforcement of their own actions.
Which milestones would be developmentally appropriate for a typically developing 5-year-old?
Answer: Drawing recognizable figures, counting 10+ objects, catching a bounced ball
By age 5, children typically draw recognizable figures, count reliably to 10 or more, and have sufficient motor coordination to catch a bounced ball.
The term 'developmentally appropriate practice' (DAP) in early childhood education refers to teaching that is based on:
Answer: Knowledge of child development, individual children, and cultural context
DAP, as defined by NAEYC, requires educators to draw on what is known about child development, the individual child, and the child's social and cultural context.