Free NES Early Childhood Education (101) Study Guide

Jean Piaget proposed that children construct knowledge through hands-on interaction with the world, moving through stages in a fixed order. The stages relevant to birth through age 8:

1. Sensorimotor (birth to about 2): the child learns through senses and movement. The landmark achievement is object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight. A 10-month-old who lifts a blanket to find a hidden toy has reached it.
2. Preoperational (about 2 to 7): the child uses symbolic thought, the ability to let one thing stand for another, which powers pretend play and early language. Thinking is limited by egocentrism (difficulty taking another person's perspective) and centration (focusing on one feature of a problem at a time).
3. Concrete operational (about 7 to 11): the child reasons logically about concrete objects and events. The landmark is conservation, the understanding that quantity stays the same when appearance changes. A first grader who insists a tall thin glass holds more juice than a short wide one has not yet conserved; most children conserve liquid by age 7 or 8.

Lev Vygotsky argued that learning is social before it is individual: children internalize thinking by interacting with more capable people. His key terms appear frequently on the exam:

• Zone of proximal development (ZPD): the range between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with support. Instruction is most effective inside this zone.
• Scaffolding: temporary, adjustable support a teacher or peer provides within the ZPD, gradually withdrawn as the child gains competence. Example: you hold the zipper base steady while a 3-year-old pulls the tab, then later only give a verbal cue, then nothing.
• Private speech: the self-directed talk young children use to guide their own behavior ("Now the red block goes on top"), which gradually becomes silent inner thought.
• More knowledgeable other: any partner, adult or peer, whose greater skill makes scaffolding possible.

Erik Erikson described development as a series of social-emotional crises. Each stage resolves toward a healthy strength when caregivers respond well. The four stages covering birth through age 8:

1. Trust vs. mistrust (birth to about 1): consistent, responsive care teaches the infant that the world is dependable.
2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (about 1 to 3): toddlers need safe chances to do things themselves (self-feeding, choosing between two shirts); harsh criticism of their attempts produces doubt.
3. Initiative vs. guilt (about 3 to 5): preschoolers plan, pretend, and start projects; adults who welcome their ideas build initiative.
4. Industry vs. inferiority (about 6 to 11): school-age children want to produce competent work and compare themselves to peers; repeated failure without support breeds inferiority.

• B. F. Skinner (behaviorism): behavior is shaped by its consequences. Positive reinforcement adds something pleasant to increase a behavior (specific praise, a sticker); negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant to increase a behavior; punishment decreases a behavior. Classroom token systems, praise, and planned ignoring rest on this theory.
• Albert Bandura (social learning theory): children also learn by observational learning, watching and imitating models. A teacher who calmly says "I'm frustrated, so I'm taking a deep breath" is deliberately modeling self-regulation. Bandura's work explains why children imitate both prosocial and aggressive behavior they observe.

• Urie Bronfenbrenner (ecological systems theory): the child develops inside nested systems.
  • Microsystem: immediate settings that touch the child directly (home, classroom, child care).
  • Mesosystem: connections between microsystems (a parent-teacher conference, a home-school reading folder).
  • Exosystem: settings that affect the child indirectly (a parent's workplace schedule, the school board).
  • Macrosystem: the broad culture, values, and laws surrounding all systems.
  • Chronosystem: the dimension of time, including life transitions such as a move or a divorce.
• John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (attachment theory): infants form an emotional bond with consistent caregivers; a secure attachment gives the child a secure base from which to explore. Securely attached children typically separate more easily and explore more confidently in your classroom, which is why primary caregiving and consistent routines matter in infant and toddler programs.
• Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs): basic needs (food, sleep, safety, belonging) must be reasonably met before a child can focus on learning. A hungry or frightened child is not available for instruction, which is why breakfast programs and predictable, emotionally safe classrooms are academic interventions, not extras.
• Howard Gardner (multiple intelligences): intelligence takes several relatively independent forms (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic). The classroom implication is to offer varied ways to engage with and demonstrate learning.

Scientifically based research on early brain development supports several findings you should know:

• Rapid synapse formation: the brain forms connections at its fastest rate in the first few years of life; early experiences literally shape brain architecture.
• Pruning: connections that are used are strengthened, and unused connections are trimmed away, which is why rich, repeated experiences matter.
• Serve and return: the back-and-forth exchange in which an adult notices a child's babble, gesture, or comment and responds contingently. These reciprocal interactions build language and social circuitry; their absence is a significant developmental risk.
• Executive function: the developing self-management system of the brain, including working memory (holding information in mind), inhibitory control (resisting impulses), and cognitive flexibility (shifting between rules or perspectives). Games like "Simon Says" and dramatic play with roles exercise these skills.
• Toxic stress: strong, prolonged activation of the stress response without buffering adult support (for example, chronic neglect or exposure to violence). Toxic stress can disrupt developing brain circuits, weaken executive function, and raise lifelong health risks. A stable, responsive relationship with an adult, including a teacher, is the primary protective buffer.

⚠ COMMON TRAP: Scaffolding is frequently misattributed to Piaget. Scaffolding and the ZPD belong to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. Piaget's classroom signature is independent discovery with concrete materials, not adult-guided support. If the teacher in the item is adjusting help, think Vygotsky; if the child is exploring alone, think Piaget.

Gross motor skills use the large muscles; fine motor skills use the small muscles of the hands and fingers. Growth proceeds cephalocaudal (head downward: head control before sitting before walking) and proximodistal (center outward: arm control before finger control).

• Gross motor sequence (approximate ages): rolls over (4 to 6 months) → sits without support (6 to 8 months) → crawls (7 to 10 months) → walks independently (12 to 15 months) → runs and kicks a ball (2 years) → pedals a tricycle and jumps (3 years) → hops on one foot (4 years) → skips (5 to 6 years) → coordinated sports skills (7 to 8 years).
• Fine motor sequence (approximate ages): raking grasp (5 to 6 months) → pincer grasp, thumb and forefinger picking up small objects (9 to 12 months) → scribbles (18 months) → snips with scissors and copies a circle (3 years) → copies a square, cuts on a line (4 to 5 years) → ties shoes, fluent pencil grip (6 to 7 years).

• Cognitive progression: object permanence (8 to 12 months) → pretend play and symbolic thought (18 months to 2 years) → sorting and classifying by one attribute (3 to 4 years) → counting with one-to-one correspondence (4 to 5 years) → conservation and logical operations on concrete materials (7 to 8 years).
• Receptive language (understanding) develops ahead of expressive language (producing). A 10-month-old who follows "wave bye-bye" but says no words is showing this typical gap.
• Expressive sequence (approximate ages): cooing (2 to 4 months) → babbling (6 to 9 months) → first words (around 12 months) → vocabulary of about 50 words, then two-word telegraphic speech such as "more juice" (18 to 24 months) → three- to four-word sentences and rapid vocabulary growth (2 to 3 years) → complex sentences, questions, and narratives (4 to 5 years) → increasingly literate, decontextualized language (6 to 8 years).
• Overregularization, applying a grammar rule too broadly ("goed," "foots"), is a typical sign of rule learning in preschoolers, not a disorder.

• Social progression: social smile (6 to 8 weeks) → stranger anxiety and separation anxiety (8 to 14 months, a sign of healthy attachment) → parallel play (2 years) → cooperative play and first friendships (4 to 5 years) → stable friendships, team play, and concern with fairness and rules (6 to 8 years).
• Emotional progression: basic emotions in infancy → self-conscious emotions such as pride, shame, and embarrassment as self-awareness emerges (18 to 24 months) → growing self-regulation, the ability to manage emotions and impulses (3 to 5 years, still developing through age 8) → empathy and understanding that others' feelings differ from one's own (preschool onward).
• Temperament, the child's inborn behavioral style (often described as easy, slow-to-warm, or difficult/feisty), shapes how a child responds to the classroom; goodness of fit means adjusting your demands and supports to the child's temperament rather than forcing the child to fit the program.

• Sensory domain: children take in and organize information through sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and movement senses (including vestibular, balance, and proprioceptive, body position). Young children learn best through multisensory experiences; some children over- or under-respond to sensory input, which affects behavior and attention.
• Aesthetic domain: the developing capacity to notice, enjoy, and create beauty through art, music, movement, and language. Progression runs from sensory exploration of materials (smearing paint at 2) to intentional representation ("This is my dog" at 4) to detailed, planned creations (7 to 8).
• Interrelationships: the domains develop together, and progress in one supports progress in others.
  • Fine motor control supports writing, which supports literacy: a kindergartner who can form letters can concentrate on composing ideas instead of gripping the pencil.
  • Language supports self-regulation: a 3-year-old who can say "I'm still using it" does not need to hit to keep a toy.
  • Gross motor play builds social skills: playground games require turn-taking, negotiation, and rule-following.
  • A delay in one domain can affect others: a child with a hearing loss may show delays in language and in peer play.

⚠ COMMON TRAP: "Sequences are predictable" does not mean "ages are fixed." An item may describe a healthy 14-month-old who is not yet walking and ask for the best response. Because walking typically emerges anywhere from about 9 to 16 months, the answer is continued observation and rich opportunity, not referral. Reserve concern for milestones well outside the typical window or for loss of previously acquired skills, which is a red flag at any age.

• Safe sleep for infants: place infants on their backs on a firm, flat sleep surface with nothing else in the crib (no blankets, pillows, stuffed toys, or bumpers), and avoid overheating. These practices reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Supervised tummy time while awake builds motor strength.
• Feeding progression: breast milk or formula only for roughly the first 6 months → iron-rich pureed solids introduced around 6 months, one new food at a time over several days to watch for reactions → soft finger foods as the pincer grasp emerges (9 to 12 months) → whole cow's milk generally after 12 months → family foods cut small for toddlers.
• Choking prevention: for children under about 4, avoid or modify round, firm, or sticky foods: whole grapes (quarter them), hot dogs (slice lengthwise), whole nuts, popcorn, hard candy, and spoonfuls of nut butter. Children should sit while eating and be actively supervised.
• Allergy management: know each child's documented allergies, post them where food is served (while respecting confidentiality), prevent cross-contact, and know how to use an epinephrine auto-injector for anaphylaxis, a rapid, severe allergic reaction involving symptoms such as swelling and difficulty breathing. Epinephrine first, then emergency services.
• Nutrition patterns: young children need small, frequent, nutrient-dense meals and snacks; programs commonly follow guidance such as the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal patterns. Food is not an appropriate reward or punishment.
• Daily health checks: a brief, informal look at each child on arrival (rash, fever signs, unusual bruising, behavior change) so illness or injury is caught early and documented.
• Immunization awareness: programs maintain immunization records and follow state exclusion requirements during outbreaks; you should know where records are kept and what your state requires for enrollment.

• Hand washing with soap and running water for about 20 seconds is the single most effective infection-control routine. Required moments: on arrival, before and after eating or handling food, after toileting or diapering, after wiping noses, after outdoor play, and after handling animals. You wash your own hands at the same moments, plus before and after administering first aid.
• Diapering and sanitation: follow a posted step-by-step diapering procedure, sanitize the surface between children, and separate diapering areas from food areas.
• Toy and surface sanitation: clean and sanitize mouthed toys, tables, and high-touch surfaces on a schedule; remove a mouthed toy from circulation until sanitized.
• Exclusion criteria: know program policies for when a sick child stays home or is sent home (for example, fever with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea) and document communicable illness per local health requirements.
• Universal precautions: treat all blood and body fluids as potentially infectious; wear gloves when handling them.

• Adult-child ratios and group sizes: exact numbers vary by state, but ratios are lowest for infants (commonly about 1 adult to 3 or 4 infants) and rise with age (about 1:10 for preschoolers in many states). Ratios exist so every child is actively supervised at all times; supervision means seeing and hearing, with closer proximity for younger children and higher-risk activities such as water play.
• Environment inspection: daily checks of indoor and outdoor spaces: outlet covers, secured furniture, cords out of reach, small parts kept from children under 3 (choking-tube test), intact playground surfacing at proper depth under equipment, appropriate fall zones, no poisonous plants, chemicals locked away and out of reach.
• Emergency procedures: posted evacuation routes, monthly fire drills as required by licensing, drills for severe weather and lockdown, first-aid and CPR-trained staff, stocked first-aid kits, current emergency contact and release forms, and a plan for children with special health or mobility needs.
• Injury documentation: every injury beyond the trivial gets first aid, a written incident report, and family notification.
• Recognizing and reporting maltreatment: as an educator you are a mandated reporter, legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect directly to child protective services or law enforcement as your state specifies. You need reasonable suspicion, not proof. Warning signs include unexplained or patterned bruises and burns, injuries in various stages of healing, fear of going home, sudden behavior change, sexual knowledge beyond developmental expectation, chronic hunger or poor hygiene, and unmet medical needs. You do not investigate, question the child suggestively, or confront the family; you report and document.

• Developmental delay: significant lag in one or more domains; states may use this flexible category through at least age 5 (in some states through 9) so young children can receive services without a premature specific label.
• Speech or language impairment: the most common early childhood category; includes articulation, fluency (stuttering), voice, and receptive or expressive language disorders. Classroom implications: give wait time, model language without forcing repetition, and support communication with pictures and gestures.
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD): differences in social communication plus restricted or repetitive behaviors and frequent sensory sensitivities; signs can appear before age 2 (limited joint attention, loss of words, intense reactions to sensory input). Implications: predictable routines, visual schedules, warned transitions, sensory accommodations.
• Intellectual disability: significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior; children learn with more repetition, smaller steps, and concrete materials.
• Specific learning disability: a disorder in a basic psychological process affecting reading, writing, or math (for example, dyslexia) despite adequate instruction and intelligence; often formally identified in the early grades, with risk indicators (difficulty with rhyming, letter-sound learning) visible in preschool and kindergarten.
• Hearing and vision impairments: sensory losses that, unaddressed, cascade into language, literacy, motor, and social delays; seat the child advantageously, use visual and tactile supports, and follow up promptly on failed screenings.
• Orthopedic impairment: physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, a group of movement and posture disorders from early brain injury; implications include adaptive equipment, accessible room arrangement, and collaboration with physical and occupational therapists.
• Other health impairment: limited strength, vitality, or alertness from a chronic condition; this is the IDEA category that commonly covers ADHD, marked by developmentally excessive inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Implications: movement breaks, short clear directions, structured choices, seating near instruction.

• Asthma: airway inflammation with wheezing and coughing triggered by exercise, allergens, cold air, or illness. Know each child's asthma action plan and where the quick-relief inhaler is kept.
• Seizure disorders (epilepsy): during a convulsive seizure, protect the child from injury, place nothing in the mouth, turn the child on one side, time the seizure, and call emergency services for a first seizure or one lasting beyond the time stated in the child's plan.
• Diabetes (type 1): the child's body does not produce insulin; watch for hypoglycemia (low blood sugar: shakiness, sweating, confusion, irritability), which is the acute classroom emergency and is treated with fast-acting sugar per the care plan.
• Severe food allergies: maintain avoidance procedures and immediate access to epinephrine (see Section 3A).
• Sickle cell disease: inherited blood disorder; children may have pain episodes, fatigue, and infection risk; keep the child hydrated, avoid temperature extremes, and take pain complaints seriously.

• Early intervention (IDEA Part C, birth to 3): services delivered through an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), which is family-centered, typically delivered in natural environments such as the home or child care setting, and includes family goals as well as child goals.
• Special education (IDEA Part B, age 3 through 21): services delivered through an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with measurable annual goals, in the least restrictive environment (LRE), meaning with typically developing peers to the maximum extent appropriate.
• Early identification matters: because of early brain plasticity, intervention begun in infancy or preschool produces stronger gains than the same services begun later. Your careful observation and referral are part of the identification system (Child Find).
• Inclusion: children with disabilities learn alongside typically developing peers with the supports they need. Benefits run in both directions: children with disabilities gain language and social models; classmates gain acceptance and helping skills. Inclusion is implemented through accommodations (changes in how a child accesses learning) and modifications (changes in what the child is expected to learn).

⚠ COMMON TRAP: A teacher who suspects a disability does not diagnose and does not tell the family a child "has" a condition. Your role is to document specific observations, share them factually with the family, and refer for evaluation with family consent. Answer options in which the teacher names a diagnosis are incorrect.

Mildred Parten classified play by its social structure. The stages emerge in order, but older children still use the earlier forms.

1. Unoccupied play (birth to about 3 months): random movements without a play purpose. Example: an infant on a blanket waving arms and watching her own hands.
2. Solitary play (about 3 months to 2 years): playing alone, uninterested in others. Example: an 18-month-old filling and dumping a bucket by himself, unaware of the child beside him.
3. Onlooker play (around 2 years): watching others play, perhaps commenting, without joining. Example: a 2-year-old standing at the edge of the sandbox, watching and occasionally asking "What that?" but staying out.
4. Parallel play (2 to 3 years): playing beside others with similar materials, without true interaction. Example: two 2-year-olds side by side, each building a separate block tower, glancing at each other but not combining towers.
5. Associative play (3 to 4 years): interacting, sharing materials, and talking, but without a shared goal or organized roles. Example: three preschoolers at the easel trading markers and chatting, each drawing a different picture.
6. Cooperative play (4 to 5 years and up): organized play with a common goal, negotiated roles, and rules. Example: four kindergartners running a pretend restaurant: one cooks, one waits tables, two are customers, and they argue about the menu until they agree.

1. Functional (practice) play: repeated physical actions for the pleasure of the action, typical of infants and toddlers. Example: a 14-month-old banging a spoon on a pot again and again.
2. Constructive play: using materials to build or make something. Example: a 3-year-old assembling a block garage for toy cars, or a 5-year-old making a collage.
3. Symbolic/dramatic play: pretending, letting objects and people stand for something else; sociodramatic play is the group version with roles and a storyline. Example: a 4-year-old holding a banana to her ear as a phone; later, three children playing veterinarian with stuffed animals.
4. Games with rules: play governed by accepted rules, emerging strongly at 6 to 8 years as concrete operational thinking arrives. Example: second graders playing four square and enforcing the rules on each other.

• Physical: climbing and running build gross motor strength; stringing beads and cutting build fine motor precision.
• Cognitive: block play builds spatial and early math concepts (balance, symmetry, counting); pretend play builds symbolic thought and planning.
• Language: sociodramatic play requires narration, negotiation, and new vocabulary ("customer," "appointment").
• Social: children practice entering groups, sharing, turn-taking, and resolving conflict.
• Emotional: play lets children rehearse and process feelings safely, such as replaying a doctor visit with a doll to master the fear.
• Teacher's role: provide time, space, and open-ended materials; observe; and extend play with a question or a new prop without taking it over. Purposeful, teacher-supported play in which learning goals are embedded is often called guided play.

• Socioeconomic status (SES): family income, education, and occupation shape access to books, enriching experiences, health care, and stable housing. Lower SES correlates on average with smaller early vocabularies and more school absences, driven by access, not ability.
• In the classroom: a kindergartner is irritable and unfocused every Monday morning; a check-in reveals weekends without reliable meals. Food insecurity, inconsistent access to enough nutritious food, commonly presents as headaches, stomachaches, hoarding food, or Monday behavior spikes. Responses include discreet connection to breakfast programs and weekend food-backpack services.
• Housing instability: children experiencing homelessness or frequent moves may be tired, miss school, or lack supplies. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, students experiencing homelessness may enroll immediately without records, stay in their school of origin when feasible, and receive transportation; each district has a liaison.

• Family structures vary: two-parent, single-parent, blended, grandparent-headed, foster, adoptive, multigenerational. Structure by itself predicts less than the stability and warmth inside it. Use inclusive language ("your grown-ups") and intake forms that fit every family.
• Family stressors and classroom signs:
  • Divorce or separation: regression (a 4-year-old resuming baby talk or toileting accidents), clinginess at drop-off, aggression in pretend family play.
  • New sibling: attention-seeking and temporary regression in a toddler or preschooler.
  • Parental incarceration: secrecy, shame, grief-like behavior; the child needs matter-of-fact acceptance, not questioning.
  • Military deployment: anxiety spikes around the deployment and the reunion; predictable routines and a way to feel connected (drawings to send) help.
• Baumrind's parenting styles pair two dimensions, warmth and demands:
  1. Authoritative (high warmth, high expectations): associated with self-reliant, socially competent children who respond well to reasoning; this profile is the model for positive guidance in classrooms.
  2. Authoritarian (low warmth, high demands): children may be obedient but anxious, and may comply only under surveillance or react aggressively with peers.
  3. Permissive (high warmth, low demands): children may struggle with limits, turn-taking, and frustration tolerance when they meet classroom structure.
  4. Uninvolved (low warmth, low demands): the highest-risk profile; children may show attachment difficulties and seek adult attention indiscriminately.

• Culture shapes child-rearing expectations and therefore classroom behavior. Concrete examples:
  • In some cultures children show respect by not making eye contact with adults; reading averted eyes as defiance or a developmental concern is a cultural misreading.
  • Families from interdependence-oriented cultures may prioritize helping and group harmony over individual achievement, and may feed or dress a child at an age when the school expects self-help; the child is not delayed, the expectations differ.
  • Comfort with adult questioning varies: some children are taught not to volunteer talk to adults, so silence at circle time reflects socialization, not language delay.
• Home language and dialect: a child learning English as an additional language may go through a typical silent period, understanding more than she says. Speaking a dialect or another language at home is a difference, not a disorder; assessment for a suspected disorder must consider the child's full language system. Maintaining the home language supports, rather than blocks, English development and family relationships.
• In the classroom: learn key words in each child's home language, include books and environmental print reflecting enrolled families, and treat families as the experts on their own children.

• Community resources extend what you can do alone: public libraries (story hours, free books), health clinics and WIC (nutrition support for women, infants, and children), Head Start and Early Head Start (comprehensive federal programs for income-eligible families that include education, health, and family services), food banks, and parks. Knowing and sharing these resources is part of the teaching role.
• Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): potentially traumatic events before 18, including abuse, neglect, and household challenges such as substance use, mental illness, domestic violence, or an incarcerated family member. Higher ACE counts raise risks to learning, behavior, and lifelong health, and buffering adult relationships reduce the impact. A child with several ACEs may show hypervigilance, big reactions to small triggers, or withdrawal; the tested stance is trauma-informed: safety, predictability, and relationships first, behavior plans second.
• Factors interact and compound. Example: a parent loses a job (economic) → the family moves in with relatives (housing) → the child changes schools mid-year (chronosystem transition) → parental stress reduces patient interaction at home (relational) → the child's attendance and behavior change in your room. No single factor explains the child; risk factors multiply each other, and protective factors (one stable caregiver, a high-quality classroom, community support) offset them.

⚠ COMMON TRAP: Risk is not destiny. An item may describe a child with multiple risk factors and offer an answer option that lowers expectations for that child. Lowered expectations are the wrong answer; the tested response pairs high expectations with added support and protective relationships.

1. Stronger school readiness: children enter kindergarten with more of the skills and behaviors school expects.
2. Larger vocabularies and stronger early literacy skills (letter knowledge, phonological awareness).
3. Stronger early numeracy (counting, number concepts).
4. Better social skills: cooperation, peer entry, conflict resolution.
5. Better self-regulation and classroom behavior.
6. Earlier identification of developmental concerns, because trained adults observe the child daily.
7. Better health monitoring where programs include screenings and meals (a core Head Start component).

1. Higher rates of high school graduation.
2. Less grade retention (being held back).
3. Fewer special education placements.
4. Higher adult earnings and employment.
5. Better adult health outcomes.
6. Lower rates of involvement with the justice system (a signature Perry Preschool finding).
7. A strong public return on investment: cost-benefit analyses of intensive programs estimate several dollars returned per dollar spent, through reduced remediation, higher earnings, and lower justice costs.

Two caveats the exam rewards:

• Quality drives the effects. The documented benefits come from high-quality programs: qualified, stable teachers, low ratios, responsive interactions, and family involvement. Poor-quality care does not produce them.
• Fade-out is selective. Some cognitive test-score advantages shrink in the elementary years, while behavioral and life outcomes (graduation, earnings, reduced justice involvement) persist into adulthood. Gains in self-regulation, motivation, and social competence are the leading explanation for the durable effects.

Test Ready Tips

• Turn every theorist into a pairing: name + signature term (Piaget/conservation, Vygotsky/ZPD, Erikson/crises, Bandura/modeling, Bronfenbrenner/systems, Ainsworth/secure attachment).
• When an item gives an age and a behavior, ask first: is this within the typical window? Most "concerning" behaviors in items (separation anxiety at 12 months, "goed" at 4) are typical.
• For any health or safety item, choose the answer that follows a posted procedure and documents the event.
• Reporting suspected maltreatment requires suspicion only, and the report must reach the child protection agency.
• Birth to 3 = IFSP and natural environments; age 3 and up = IEP and least restrictive environment.
• Parallel = beside, associative = interacting without a goal, cooperative = shared goal with roles.
• Program-outcome items: test-score gains may fade; graduation, earnings, health, and justice outcomes persist; quality is the precondition.