Question 1

Jean Piaget, one of the most influential researchers in the study of cognitive development, believed that children\'s thinking changes in important ways as they move from the preschool years into middle childhood. This transition from preoperational thought to concrete operational thought involves the development of what Piaget called mental operations, which are logical principles of reasoning.    Piaget\'s most well-known task for measuring this transition is the liquid quantity problem. In this task, a child is shown two identical glasses, each with identical amounts of liquid in them. After the child agrees that the amount of liquid in the two glasses is equivalent, the researcher pours the liquid from one of the glasses into a tall, narrow glass. Because the level of the liquid in the tall glass is now higher than the liquid level in the original glass, most young children in the preoperational stage say that the tall glass has \"more.\"    Play the video to view the response of a typical preoperational child.    As you can see, young children fail to conserve the equivalence of the two amounts of liquid. They focus on the change in appearance, and they do not realize that the amount of liquid in the two different shaped glasses remains the same.

Accepted Answer

As children move into the concrete operational stage of thinking, they begin to realize that the transformation in the appearance of the liquid does not change the amount of liquid. In other words, they demonstrate an understanding of conservation.    What has changed in their thinking? Piaget believed that the child could correctly solve the liquid quantity problem by applying any one of three logical operations to the situation:    1. Identity: Since nothing has been added and nothing has been taken away, the amount must still be the same and identical to the amount in the original glass.    2. Reversibility: Although pouring the liquid into the tall, thin glass changes the appearance of the liquid, the child can imagine the liquid being poured back into the normal glass.    3. Reciprocity: The level of liquid is higher in the tall glass, but the glass is narrower. The increase in height is compensated by a reciprocal decrease in width so the amount must still be the same.    Play the video to observe the response of a concrete operational child. Can you determine which reasoning she is using?

Question 2

A characteristic of preoperational thought involves a child\'s assumption that the world is unchanging, always in the state in which the child currently encounters it. This is called static _____.

Accepted Answer

reasoning

Question 3

Lev Vygotsky\'s term for the process by which people learn from others who help direct their experiences and explorations is called _____ participation.

Accepted Answer

guided

Question 4

The older a child gets, the more believable their _____ can become.

Accepted Answer

lies

Question 5

The belief that trees have personalities would be a form of _____.

Accepted Answer

animism

Question 6

Which theorist emphasized the sociocultural aspects of young children\'s cognition and learning?

Accepted Answer

Lev Vygotsky

Question 7

The idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear by constructing _____ is called theory-theory.

Accepted Answer

theories

Question 8

Which term involves focusing on one idea or aspect of something, to the exclusion of all others?

Accepted Answer

centration

Question 9

Focus on appearance refers to a characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent.

Accepted Answer

Egocentrism is Jean Piaget\'s term for children\'s tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective.     Guided participation is a term from Lev Vygotsky\'s theory that describes a way that older people help younger children

Question 10

Lev Vygotsky emphasized the _____ aspects of young children\'s cognition and learning.

Accepted Answer

sociocultural

Question 11

According to research, before children employ their impressive ability to imitate others they:

Accepted Answer

develop theories about the behavior.

Question 12

The Piagetian principle that the amount of a substance remains the same despite changes in its appearance is called _____.

Accepted Answer

conservation

Question 13

Guided participation is Lev Vygotsky\'s term for the process by which people learn from others who help direct their experiences and explorations.

Accepted Answer

zone of proximal development.    Scaffolding is Lev Vygotsky\'s term for providing temporary, sensitive support to a child who is learning something new.

Question 14

Four-year-old Sally asks her father why her pregnant mother\'s stomach is so big. Her father should try to include which information in his answer?

Accepted Answer

how the pregnancy affects Sally

Question 15

Jean Piaget\'s term for cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6 is _____ intelligence.

Accepted Answer

preoperational

Question 16

According to Lev Vygotsky, children learn through their social context and interactions with parents, teachers, and older siblings. All of these individuals can be crucial to learning by:

Accepted Answer

mentoring

Question 17

When children ask \"why\" questions, adults should try to include how the information affects the _____ in their answers.

Accepted Answer

child

Question 18

A(n) _____ on appearance is a characteristic of preoperational thought involving a child ignoring all attributes that are not apparent.

Accepted Answer

focus

Question 19

_____ emphasized the sociocultural aspects of young children\'s cognition and learning.

Accepted Answer

Lev Vygotsky

Question 20

In the \"puppy in the box\" experiment described in the text, which was the reason for MOST 3-year-olds thinking that Max the doll would look in the blue box upon his return?

Accepted Answer

They confused what they know now with what they once thought, and what they think someone else thinks.

Question 21

Franklin is helping his younger sibling learn how to ride a bicycle. Lev Vygotsky believed that this would facilitate learning because Franklin is:

Accepted Answer

a mentor.

Question 22

Jen is 3 and was in the experiment with candies under a cup that was cited in the text. Jen checked under the cup. Which is the MOST likely reason Jen would give for how the candy got on the table?

Accepted Answer

The candies got out themselves.

Question 23

According to Jean Piaget, which is one of the characteristics that limit a preoperational child\'s thinking?

Accepted Answer

centration

Question 24

Fast-mapping refers to the speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.

Accepted Answer

Theory of mind refers to a person\'s theory of what other people might be thinking; it is an advance in thinking, not a limitation.

Question 25

The tendency for children to want explanations of various things, especially things that involve them, reflects:

Accepted Answer

theory-theory    Conservation refers to the principle that the amount of a substance remains the same even when its appearance changes.

Question 26

According to _____, children want explanations of various things, especially things that involve them.

Accepted Answer

theory-theory

Question 27

Culture and _____ interactions influence theory of mind.

Accepted Answer

social

Question 28

According to theory-theory, children want _____ of various things, especially things that involve them.

Accepted Answer

explanations

Question 29

A characteristic of preoperational thought involves a child\'s assumption that the world is unchanging, always in the state in which the child currently encounters it. This is called _____ reasoning.

Accepted Answer

static

Question 30

According to Jean Piaget, centration is one of the characteristics that limit thinking in the _____ stage

Accepted Answer

preoperational

Question 31

According to Lev Vygotsky, Franklin serves as a(n) _____ when helping his younger siblings learn how to ride a bicycle.

Accepted Answer

mentor

Question 32

After noticing that her 4-year-old brother was experiencing difficulty putting together a jigsaw puzzle, Rose helped him with the task by praising his successes and helping him to recognize progress. From Lev Vygotsky\'s perspective, this is an example of:

Accepted Answer

guided participation.

Question 33

A color-matching activity is within Cleo\'s zone of proximal development. In other words, Cleo:

Accepted Answer

can perform this activity with guidance from a more skilled person.

Question 34

A young child\'s belief that natural objects and phenomena are alive is called:

Accepted Answer

animism

Question 35

Take a minute to think about some of the ways in which you are the same today as when you were two years old. Now, consider how you have changed since that age. How would you explain how you have or have not changed since you were a toddler?    The science of human development seeks to understand how and why people (all kinds of people, everywhere) change or remain the same over time. The scientific study of human development, including that of children and adolescents, is based on empirical evidence rather than on theory. Any view of human development is inherently influenced by subjective perceptions because the study of human development is humans studying other humans! Scientific research attempts to parse subjective opinions and empirical findings (Lerner, 2006).

Accepted Answer

To attempt to deal with the distortions of personal opinions and biases, researchers rely on the scientific method, a technique for answering questions that requires empirical research and data-based conclusions. The scientific method includes four steps:    1. Ask a question.    2. Develop a hypothesis, which is a specific prediction to be tested.    3. Test the hypothesis to provide empirical evidence about the validity or falsehood of the hypothesis.    4. Draw conclusions to support or refute the hypothesis.

Question 36

Many of the research questions presented by those who study children and adolescents are inspired by or nested within developmental theories. These theories connect facts and observations with patterns and explanations. They guide hypotheses, generate discoveries, and often provide the basis of practice guidance.

Accepted Answer

At the heart of many developmental theories is the nature versus nurture controversy that focuses on whether heredity (nature) or the environment (nurture) has a greater influence on a particular feature of development. The view has swung back and forth over time regarding the amount of influence that either nature or nurture has on a wide range of developmental traits. Today, it is commonly accepted that most aspects of a child\'s or adolescent\'s development are products of the interaction of both nurture and nature. Advocates of each side of this question introduce theories for how either nature or nurture impacts development (Clark, 2003). Consider how these different advocates would explain children\'s language acquisition, which is the process by which language capacity develops in a child.    As an introduction to the topic of language acquisition, play the two videos on this screen.

Question 37

A major proponent of the position that language acquisition depends largely on environment (nurture) was the behaviorist B. F. Skinner, who theorized that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events as well as by imitating others. In particular, adults play an important role in language acquisition by speaking to children in a slow, grammatical, and repetitive way. In turn, children discern patterns in language and experiment with speech gradually through interaction with their speaking world.    Although nurture may have historically referred primarily to the care given to children by their caregivers, it has been suggested more recently that any non-genetic environmental factor could also be considered as nurture in a contemporary nature versus nurture debate. This broader definition of nurture may include influences from childhood friends, early experiences with media of all types, and even incidents in the womb (Lust ; Foley, 2004).    Play the video clip to explore how children learn to communicate and to speak with such fluency and competence.

Accepted Answer

Noam Chomsky theorizes that parts of the brain have evolved over time specifically for the purpose of producing, organizing, and understanding language. According to this theory, there is an assumption that all languages have a common, essential structural basis and set of rules and that children are born with an innate propensity for language acquisition. This propensity allows children to decipher what is and is not possible in the grammar of their native language and to master that grammar by the age of about three years old. This inborn ability to grasp the rules of language is known as universal grammar. Today, researchers continue to theorize about how language evolves.

Question 38

The average child knows about 500 words at age 2 and more than _____ at age 6.

Accepted Answer

10,000

Question 39

In the United States in 2011, about _____ percent of children spoke a language at home other than English.

Accepted Answer

20

Question 40

Early childhood is NOT a(n) _____ period for language learning; Language learning can still occur in middle childhood.

Accepted Answer

critical

Question 41

Some adults are afraid that children who are taught two languages might become semilingual. In general, research indicates that children who are taught two languages from birth will:

Accepted Answer

master both languages.

Question 42

Fast-mapping refers to the:

Accepted Answer

process by which children develop an interconnected set of categories for words.

Question 43

Denny and Alesya live in the United States and have two children. Denny\'s native tongue is English and Alesya\'s is Russian, but she is also fluent in English. Alesya speaks to her children exclusively in Russian, and Denny speaks to them only in English. The children are consistently exposed to both English and Russian every day and have been since birth. Research suggests that Denny and Alesya\'s children will:

Accepted Answer

be able to learn and separate both languages.

Question 44

According to the text, children could be referred to as language sponges in _____ childhood.

Accepted Answer

early

Question 45

Patrick\'s parents and family are careful to expose him to two different languages as well as the culture connected to each of these languages. By doing this, his parents and family are encouraging him to be:

Accepted Answer

a balanced bilingual.

Question 46

George, who is 3 years old, seems to talk almost constantly, even if no one is listening. George also seems not to notice mistakes in his language, such as stuttering. This illustrates the importance of _____ to language learning in early childhood.

Accepted Answer

egocentrism

Question 47

Claude has grown up hearing his mother speak French, his father speak Spanish, and his peers at school speak English. If Claude was equally exposed to all of these languages, he could be:

Accepted Answer

trilingual.

Question 48

According to the text, a child told to \"stay there\" or \"come here\" may not follow instructions because the terms are _____.

Accepted Answer

confusing

Question 49

Receptive language refers to the:

Accepted Answer

ability to hear or read language

Question 50

A valuable trait of young children that aids in language development is that they _____ a lot.

Accepted Answer

talk

Question 51

Dmitri is 4 years old and is asking many \"why,\" \"when,\" and \"how\" questions. His parents should answer as many of these questions as they can in order to facilitate the _____ period of language development.

Accepted Answer

sensitive

Question 52

When an adult is unable to fast-map, his or her learning is _____.

Accepted Answer

slowed

Question 53

_____ children who do not know a word in the language they are speaking often insert a word from the other language.

Accepted Answer

Bilingual

Question 54

Overregularization demonstrates a child\'s understanding of:

Accepted Answer

grammar

Question 55

Matt is 3 years old and is repeating almost everything he hears. His parents have to carefully choose the words that they say because Matt seems to soak up every word like a sponge. Matt is MOST likely demonstrating these behaviors because he is:

Accepted Answer

critical period

Question 56

Telegraphic speech involves

Accepted Answer

short, telegraphic sentences, omitting adjectives, adverbs, and articles.

Question 57

The teacher-directed approach to early childhood education emphasizes preparation for school through _____-group instruction.

Accepted Answer

large

Question 58

Which is MOST likely to foster learning in early education programs regardless of curriculum or strategy?

Accepted Answer

a warm teacher-child relationship

Question 59

The results of a 2006 study of 5-year-olds in inner-city Milwaukee revealed that, compared to other children, children exposed to a Montessori program were better at prereading and early _____ tasks.

Accepted Answer

math

Question 60

When was Head Start established in the United States?

Accepted Answer

1965

Question 61

Children who develop skills in two languages are called:

Accepted Answer

dual language learners.

Question 62

In the United States, the MOST widespread early-_____ education program is Project Head Start.

Accepted Answer

childhood

Question 63

Problems with the Head Start program include all of the following EXCEPT:

Accepted Answer

A. the mothers least likely to have jobs are those that speak only Spanish.  B. they are often only three hours a day.  C. it is an expensive program.  D. few teachers are native Spanish speakers.    Answer: C

Question 64

Some Head Start programs employ _____-centered approaches, some are more child-centered.

Accepted Answer

teacher

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