ECE Industry Certification Test Study Guide

2/3/15

Ages & Stages/Developmental Domains

  • Identifying activities that can be done to promote specific domain skill development. Ex: hula hoops, throwing balls/bean bags, running, etc to practice gross motor skills.
  • Know domains and how to identify skills from each or combinations of each, such as Fine vs gross motor, sensorimotor, etc.
  • Identifying typical developmental stages of children, birth – 5, and typical order of skill acquisition.
  • Example—When does self awareness develop in toddlers and how is it exhibited?
  • When given a scenario, identify skills from different domains a child can typically do at that age. Ex: What fine and gross motor skills can a 4 year old usually do?
  • Ex. Rote counting first, then counting real objects using one to one correspondence, etc.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice

  • Identifying activities that are DAP and those that are inappropriate and understanding why
  • Characteristics of developmentally appropriate practices
  • Considerations of DAP—biological age, individual needs, allowing children to move at their own pace, etc.
  • DAP on hot topics such as lining up, K readiness, variety/types of materials, role of play, using small groups during center time, individualized instruction, routines, transitions, etc.
  • Positive classroom behavior management techniques for common issues, such as when children aren’t getting along, using choices to prevent child frustration, etc.
  • Positive guidance techniques—using positive language instead of negative, talking to the child face to face instead of across the room, redirection, determining the functions of a behavior to know how best to address it, etc.
  • Budgets and DAP—Given a scenario, choose best way to save money without compromising developmentally appropriate practices.
  • Outcomes children demonstrate when they’ve been taught by a teacher that utilizes DAP. Ex: more verbal, better listening skills, more autonomy, etc.

Approaches to Learning

  • Types of play—parallel, solitary, cooperative, associative, passive, etc.
  • Role of play in learning
  • How children learn & how it may change at varied ages—time/process for learning, trial and error, experimentation, hands on, process over product, etc.
  • Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation

Developmental/Cognitive Theory and Theorists

  • Vygotsky—zone of proximal development, private speech, scaffolding, etc.
  • Piaget—schemas, stages of development, adaption processes, role of maturation, egocentrism, conservation, etc.
  • Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs
  • Differences between theorists

Curriculum

  • Benefits of developmental-thematic units
  • Transitions:
  • Developmentally appropriate role/philosophy on using transitions to teach
  • Identifying age appropriate transitions
  • GA Pre-K approved curriculums

Health & Safety

  • Considerations for staff health and safety in child care. Ex: adequate air flow and humidity for preventing illness.
  • Home / Child Care Risks
  • According to research, are children at greater risk at home or in child care for injury?
  • Where do most childhood accidents occur, inside or outside?
  • Practices to prevent the spread of germs, such as proper diaper changing procedures, hand washing procedures, not using a strap on diaper changing table, what to do with mouthed toys, etc.
  • Proper handwashing procedures
  • Pest Management
  • Identifying Integrated Pest Management strategies
  • Short and long term effects of pesticide exposure in young children
  • Facts to know about encouraging children to eat healthy. Ex.—children may try a new food up to 10 times before deciding they like it; small portions, not forcing a child to eat, using meals for social times, etc.
  • Most common types of child abuse/maltreatment in the U.S.

Learning Environment

  • Room Arrangement
  • A developmentally appropriate environment is essential to learning for children who are typically developing as well as children with special needs.
  • Important considerations, such as:
  • Loud centers should be arranged away from quiet centers. Ex: Neither dramatic play nor blocks should be beside the reading center.
  • Reading centers should be comfortable and a pleasing area to read in.
  • Indoor physical center stations should be developed using motor skill categories.
  • Computers and writing materials are best utilized throughout the classroom instead of only in dedicated centers.
  • Family space and child care space should be clearly designated in family child care homes.
  • Age appropriate playground components. Ex. Low to the ground equipment and tunnels for infants and toddlers.

Role of the Teacher/Teaching Practices

  • Difference between child-initiated and teacher directed activities and being able to identify when given an example
  • Praise vs. Encouragement—what are differences? Be able to identify which is shown in a given example.
  • Ways teacher can extend learning using open-ended discussions while interacting with children during center time. Ex: What could be discussed in the block center that would help facilitate open ended discussion?
  • Ways to expand and enhance learning in a center by material choice. Ex: adding real wood scraps and props from lumber yard to blocks and/or woodworking center, adding restaurant menus and supplies to homeliving, etc.
  • Basic ways a teacher can encourage and assist preschool children to maintain a play episode, but not take over direction of the episode.
  • How to introduce new interactive materials the children have had no prior experience with to the classroom. Ex: puppets
  • Considerations when deciding to pursue children’s interests as topics of study
  • Age/developmental appropriateness, applicable learning standards, opportunity for hands on learning, opportunity to make connections to prior learning, etc
  • Classroom schedules—
  • How do they help children? Ex: stability, ability to focus on higher order learning, knowing what to expect, consistency, developing independence, etc.
  • How do they differ by age, such as individualized scheduling for infants and whole class schedules for preschool
  • Considerations for planning successful whole group activities, small groups, and free play as part of the daily schedule

Literacy and Language Development

  • The role of phonemic awareness on literacy
  • Identifying classroom materials that could help children practice and increase phonemic awareness skills
  • Why is sociodramatic play important for literacy development?
  • Ways to incorporate literacy activities daily
  • Examples & characteristics of literacy emerging—literacy emerges prior to learning to read, use of symbolic representations, etc.

Physical Development

  • What is the fundamental movement phase of motor development, and why is it critical for children?
  • Difference between fine and gross motor skills and activities to facilitate both

Social-emotional Development

  • Emotionally responsive care vs. unresponsive care
  • Effects on children of each
  • Identifying examples of emotionally responsive or unresponsive care
  • Role of friendships
  • Later success is often predicted by quality of early friendships.
  • Age children begin to develop friendships
  • What are prosocial skills?
  • Most effective methods to help infants self-regulate
  • Characteristics of dramatic play episodes—child initiated, significant use of creative/imagination skills, using generic props for creative purposes, utilizes skills from all developmental domains, etc.
  • Developmental stages of social-emotional development. Ex: when children begin to recognize they can have more than one emotion simultaneously, when children begin to recognize and/or empathize with emotions others are feeling, developing a sense of autonomy, etc.

Art

  • Art as inquiry approach
  • Open ended art process and characteristics

Math & Science

  • Common age appropriate methods, topics, and materials to teach science to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Ex: Infants and toddlers would benefit from using a variety of materials to explore cause and effect and classification.
  • Common age appropriate methods and materials for teaching math to infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Ex: Using peg boards to teach one to one correspondence to toddlers or using blocks to sort by size and shape with preschoolers, rote counting for first exposure to counting, etc.
  • Best practices for helping children understand scientific knowledge in developmentally appropriate ways

Music

  • Earliest time a child responds to music?
  • Considerations when supplying musical instruments for the classroom, such as quality of sound. Ex. Homemade instruments don’t have same sound quality as real instruments and should be avoided for routine classroom use if other options are available.

Assessment

  • Types of assessments, including time sampling, anecdotal notes, work samples, and running records
  • Purposes of assessments
  • Characteristics of a good observer—unbiased, objective, records facts only, uses multiple observations across varied times to get full understanding, etc.

Brain Development

  • Effect of stress on children’s brain development
  • Timeline of Brain Development—from conception throughout adulthood

CPR & First Aid

  • Proper first aid procedures for common childhood injuries, such as nosebleeds, scraped knees/elbows, etc.
  • Signs and characteristics of head injuries, including timeline for symptoms to present.
  • Which type of fire extinguisher is used for which type of fire
  • When do you perform CPR?

Diversity

  • Effects of poverty on young children
  • Current cultural groups in US most likely to live in poverty
  • What can a teacher do to ensure her classroom represents and reflects the cultures of her students?

Licensing – Core Regulations

  • Max hot water temp
  • Group sizes and teacher child ratios by age
  • Core difference between licensing and accreditation
  • Indoor and outdoor space requirements per child
  • How often child care programs are monitored and who monitors them in GA

ECE Organizations

  • Purpose of NAEYC
  • Basic understanding of NAEYC’s guidelines for parental involvement
  • Parents must have a voice and opportunity to be involved in the program, their child’s classroom, and how their child is cared for.
  • Purpose of Head Start

Special Needs

  • Possible accommodations a teacher could provide for children with specific needs when given a situation to consider. Ex: How could you assist a child with physical needs to be able to participate on the playground?
  • Best practices for accommodating children’s food allergies
  • Most common symptoms of developmental disability in early childhood--- delayed speech & language.

Parenting/Parental Involvement

  • Benefits for children of parental involvement at school, such as improved motivation, attendance, and behavior, greater academic success, etc.
  • Types of parenting styles and their noted outcomes on children---authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, etc.
  • Characteristics of an effective parent-teacher conference—privacy, discuss all areas of development, ask parent for input, etc.