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Study Guide

Field 134: Early Childhood General and Special Education (Birth–K)
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Subarea 1—Foundations of Early Childhood Education

Objective 001—Teaching and Learning

1. A preschool teacher designs upcoming classroom instruction to include four activity centers. The teacher can best support children's learning and exploration within the centers by attending to which of the following planning considerations?

  1. assigning which children go to specific centers
  2. requiring children to spend time in every center
  3. balancing activities across developmental domains and content areas
  4. eliminating center activities when there is no longer enough interest in them
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 001—Teaching and Learning

2. A teacher uses red and blue blocks to introduce preschool students to the concept of patterns. Blue blocks are square and have felt on the surfaces. Red blocks are round and have a bumpy, textured surface. The teacher models a simple red-blue pattern and asks students to continue the pattern. If a student needs help, the teacher holds up a picture of the pattern as a visual cue. The teacher's actions reflect which of the following teaching strategies?

  1. providing intensive interventions
  2. incorporating backward chaining
  3. integrating social-emotional learning
  4. implementing developmentally appropriate supports
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 002—Observation, Documentation, Assessments

3. A preschool teacher conducts an observation-based screening of communication skills for children in class. One of the newer three-year-old children is very quiet, and observations do not provide adequate information to complete the assessment tool. Which of the following actions would be most appropriate for the teacher to take to gather additional information?

  1. collaborating with the child's parent/guardian to complete an inventory of developmental milestones in language that they have observed at home
  2. recommending the parent/guardian seek an evaluation of the child's language development by a private speech and language pathologist
  3. implementing focused interventions targeting receptive language development with the child during one-to-one teacher-student activities
  4. focusing on developing the child's social-emotional skills before addressing whether the child is developing language skills as expected
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 003—Culturally Responsive Education

4. A teacher in an early childhood program invites families to share information about holidays, traditions, or common everyday activities with the class. Families may choose to share photos, videos, or other artifacts. Children can describe their event with scaffolded support by the teacher. The teacher's practice of inviting families to share events in this way demonstrates an understanding of the importance of:

  1. providing an opportunity to engage students in instruction aligned with their personal interests.
  2. encouraging families to support their child's oral language development in their home settings.
  3. creating an inclusive and welcoming environment to share a range of traditions and customs.
  4. developing students' ability to attend to new information presented by classmates.
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 004—Relationships, Interactions, and Guidance

5. A preschool classroom posts visual supports around the classroom for common routines, such as the sequence of steps to wash hands and footprint outlines on the floor to indicate where to line up before leaving the classroom. A primary benefit of using these types of visuals is that they:

  1. help children develop self-regulation and understand expectations for behavior within the environment.
  2. address common parental requests to decrease challenging behaviors around self-care.
  3. reduce the degree of supervision needed by encouraging students' compliant behavior.
  4. extend positive behaviors from inside the classroom to the outdoor play.
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 005—Professionalism

6. Research demonstrates that children who attend high-quality early childhood education programs typically experience which of the following long-term outcomes?

  1. higher high school graduation rates
  2. greater involvement in politics as adults
  3. higher rate of accelerated grade advancement
  4. greater levels of employment in technological fields
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Subarea 2—Whole Child Development

Objective 006—General Knowledge

7. Which of the following children demonstrates development that is delayed according to milestones of language acquisition?

  1. A two-year-old child asks yes-no questions using only rising intonation, such as asking the question, "I can have cookie?"
  2. A three-year-old child uses immature pronunciation and says things like "I wike my brudder." (I like my brother.)
  3. A four-year-old child uses incorrect forms of words, such as "I holded my kitty." and "I see two fishes."
  4. A five-year-old child produces sentences of two to three words in length, such as "Me no want."
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 007—Influences on Development

8. A child with Down syndrome as a primary disability is most likely to require special education services to address which of the following areas?

  1. difficulty inhibiting motor movements
  2. hyper-focus on topics of interest
  3. global developmental delays
  4. echolalia in oral language
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 008—The Role of Play

9. When planning early learning experiences for infants up to around six months old, caretakers should focus primarily on providing interpersonal interactions and:

  1. opportunities to engage in parallel play.
  2. exposure to greatly simplified oral language.
  3. opportunities to engage in sensory exploration.
  4. exposure to children's literature featuring complex illustrations.
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 008—The Role of Play

10. A four-year-old preschooler spreads a small blanket on the floor, places a toy basket filled with plastic food items on it, and calls out, "Time to eat! We're having a picnic!" A peer answers, "Wait, I'm coming! Can I have a hot dog?" The two children sit on the blanket and pretend to prepare food and eat it. Which of the following descriptions best characterizes the type and benefits of this play interaction?

  1. parallel play that enables children to engage in extended focus and concentration on areas of interest
  2. cooperative play that supports children in developing language and interpersonal social skills
  3. constructive play that provides children with practice solving problems
  4. physical play that develops children's fine and gross motor skills
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 009—Social-Emotional Development

11. As part of a lesson addressing conflict resolution skills, a preschool teacher reads a story where characters are in a conflict about how to share a special present. The teacher then creates a role-playing activity and asks two children to pretend they both want to play with the same toy. The teacher asks each child to describe how they feel in that situation and asks the class for ideas about productive solutions to the problem. Which of the following concluding activities would best promote students' ability to implement the strategies they have learned?

  1. having the class retell the events of the story about the conflict and draw pictures of their favorite part
  2. having children memorize particular phrases that can be used to resolve potential conflicts with a peer
  3. sending families a sheet of suggestions for ways to resolve common conflicts with their children at home
  4. providing scaffolding for pairs of children to take turns enacting resolutions to the conflict that was presented
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 3—Special Education and Support for All Children and Families

Objective 010—Relationships that Provide Support for All Children and Families

12. Teachers at a preschool create a series of short video clips demonstrating ways for families to engage children in learning outside of school. One video demonstrates how to narrate what is happening during meal preparation and grocery shopping. In the video, teachers model with their own children examples, such as giving their child a vegetable to hold and talking about the vegetable's color and texture. Teachers make the videos and transcripts available on the preschool's Web page and send families links when new clips go up. These educators' approach best accomplishes which of the following goals?

  1. ensuring educational experiences at home align with the classroom curriculum and goals
  2. giving families strategies to support child development that fit into their daily routines and interactions
  3. engaging families in monitoring and reporting on their child's attainment of age-expected milestones
  4. modeling how families should interact with their child to teach basic concepts and academic content
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 011—Learning Environments that Support All Children

13. A preschool teacher strategically arranges the furniture and tables in the classroom to avoid large open spaces. This action most directly supports the physical safety of children in which of the following ways?

  1. making space for gross motor play and group games
  2. creating an environment that discourages running
  3. increasing the accessibility of toys and materials
  4. improving sightlines for adult supervision
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 011—Learning Environments that Support All Children

14. Staff at a child-care center provide younger infants with toys they can mouth, shake, drop, and roll, while toddlers have access to toys they can push, pull, fill, and dump. This scenario best illustrates which of the following strategies in selecting toys for children?

  1. choosing toys that provide calming sensory experiences
  2. focusing on toys that are easily replaced if they become worn
  3. matching toys to the children's developmental stages and abilities
  4. promoting single-purpose toys that develop specific cognitive skills
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 012—Individualized Family Service Plan (I F S P) and Individualized Education Program (I E P)

15. The Home Visiting programs offered by the state of Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services have which of the following primary missions?

  1. eliminating the presence of learning disabilities before children start school
  2. delivering high-quality respite child care for children with complex disabilities
  3. arranging transportation for children to attend community preschool programs
  4. providing families coaching and educational resources to support healthy child development
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Subarea 4—Infant and Toddler Content and Pedagogy

Objective 013—General Considerations in Infant and Toddler Content and Pedagogy

16. An early childhood teacher engages a small group of toddlers in an activity singing a repetitive song that incorporates a series of movements that increases by one movement each round, such as jumping, clapping, turning around, and touching toes. This type of holistic activity provides which of the following benefits to young children?

  1. engaging children in a physical activity that integrates language development, motor skills, and cognitive skills
  2. providing opportunities for children to expend energy so that they can be calmer during more focused activities
  3. teaching preacademic skills in an enjoyable and interactive way that focuses on following and complying with instructions
  4. promoting musical ability in children to identify which children demonstrate talents that may benefit from additional musical education
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 014—Supporting Cognitive Development

17. A teacher who works with young children between one to two years old selects a toy to address early counting and matching skills. Which of the following toys would best provide young children with relevant experiences to support these concepts?

  1. finger paints
  2. shape sorter
  3. pop-up book
  4. musical shaker toy
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 015—Supporting Language and Literacy Development

18. An early childhood teacher and an 18-month-old child engage with toy food and picnic supplies.

Child: Apple.

Teacher: I see the red apple.

Child: Gimme napkin.

Teacher: The napkins are on the table. Here is a napkin for you.

Child: Yum yum. (pretends to eat the apple)

Teacher: My apple tastes good, too.

Child: Uh oh! Falled down.

Teacher: Oh no, the apple fell on the floor!

The teacher's technique of responding to the child's utterances in this manner benefits the child's development of oral language skills in which of the following ways?

  1. correcting grammatical and articulation errors by rephrasing the child's utterances
  2. giving children direct instruction on topic maintenance and conversational turn taking
  3. providing support for grammatical development through modeling expanded sentences
  4. using naturalistic contexts and repetition to introduce and reinforce new vocabulary words
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 015—Supporting Language and Literacy Development

19. A teacher reads a lift-the-flap book about a mother dog looking for a hiding puppy to a group of two-year-old children. The book includes the repetitive question "Where is the puppy?" and, after lifting each flap, descriptions of the puppy's location, such as "The puppy is in the box." Which of the following strategies would best foster children's oral language development when reading this book?

  1. reading the text printed in the book, showing the pictures, and having the children repeat each sentence
  2. using the repetition of the text to create call-and-response opportunities to reinforce discourse patterns
  3. inviting one child at a time to come up and lift the flap before the teacher identifies what's there
  4. asking the children if they think the puppy is under the flap before lifting it up each time
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Subarea 5—Literacy, Mathematics, Science, and Social Development (Ages 3–6)

Objective 016—Language and Emergent Literacy: Literacy Learning Environments, Culturally Responsive Practices in Literacy, and Literacy Curriculum Design and Assessment

20. Teachers in an early childhood program plan topics for a family literacy night. Which of the following topics would best help families understand ways to directly support their child's literacy development?

  1. learning about creating a reading corner at home
  2. accessing the school library to check out books to read
  3. learning basic comprehension questions to ask children when reading
  4. listening to a literacy specialist talk about the benefits of reading to children
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 017—Components of Literacy

21. A kindergarten teacher provides relevant texts in the classroom library that align with student interests and uses these interests in developing and offering choices among reading activities. These practices most closely address which of the following aspects of development?

  1. offering students opportunities to gain concepts about print
  2. fostering students' intrinsic motivation to engage in literacy activities
  3. embedding precursor skills needed to expand phonological memory
  4. enhancing students' alphabetic knowledge and phonemic awareness
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 017—Components of Literacy

22. Which of the following prompts would provide a kindergarten teacher with information about a student's phonological awareness skills?

  1. "I'm going to show you a letter. Can you tell me the name of this letter?"
  2. "Here are some letters. Can you put all the round letters together?"
  3. "I'm going to say a word in parts. Pen . . . cil. What word did I say?"
  4. "I'm going to say a word. Boat. How many letters are in the word?"
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 018—Mathematics: Mathematics-Specific Teaching Practices and Strategic Tasks of Mathematics Teaching

23. During calendar time, students in a kindergarten class sing a song about the days of the week. This activity best promotes students' understanding of which of the following mathematics skills?

  1. measurement
  2. numeracy
  3. patterning
  4. seriation
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 019—Science: Science Pedagogical Content Knowledge

24. Kindergarten children feed the classroom fish as one of their weekly jobs. This classroom job promotes children's understanding of which of the following life science concepts?

  1. what basic needs all living things have
  2. where living things exist in the local environment
  3. how a living thing's physical structure affects how it moves
  4. which characteristics distinguish living things from nonliving things
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 020—Social Development and Studies: Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Social Development and Social Studies

25. A prekindergarten teacher gives children a variety of building materials to create models of a room in their school. As an extension activity, the teacher plans to have children explain their models to a classmate. Which of the following prerequisite concepts do children need to acquire to participate effectively in this activity?

  1. describing the physical attributes of objects
  2. sorting objects by similarities and differences
  3. using words to indicate the relative position of objects
  4. distinguishing left from right to describe the location of objects
Answer. Enter to expand or collapse. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.