AEPA Early Childhood Education flashcards
AEPA Early Childhood Education · Build recall with a focused review session.
33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Object permanence
- The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight; develops during Piaget's sensorimotor stage, typically emerging in the later part of the first year.
- Conservation
- The recognition that quantity, mass, or volume stays the same despite changes in appearance; typically achieved in Piaget's concrete operational stage around age seven.
- Zone of proximal development
- Vygotsky's term for the range of tasks a child cannot yet do alone but can accomplish with guidance from a more capable person.
- Scaffolding
- Temporary support a teacher provides, such as prompts, modeling, or cueing, that is gradually withdrawn as the child gains competence.
- Egocentrism
- In Piaget's theory, difficulty taking another's perspective, seen in preoperational children who assume others see and know what they do.
- Autonomy versus shame
- Erikson's toddler-stage conflict in which supportive opportunities for self-control and choice foster autonomy, while over-restriction fosters shame and doubt.
- Phonological awareness
- Awareness of the sound structure of language, including words, syllables, rhymes, and individual phonemes; a foundational predictor of later reading success.
- Cephalocaudal development
- The pattern in which motor control develops from head to toe, so head and trunk control precede walking and fine finger control.
- Developmentally appropriate practice
- Instruction matched to children's age-related capabilities, individual characteristics, and social and cultural contexts, rather than a single uniform curriculum.
- Emergent literacy
- Early, informal reading and writing behaviors such as print awareness, scribbling, and story reenactment that precede conventional literacy instruction.
- Phonemic awareness
- The ability to identify and manipulate individual phonemes in spoken words, such as blending or segmenting the sounds in a word.
- Differentiated instruction
- Adjusting content, process, or product in response to children's readiness, interests, and learning profiles so each child can progress.
- Learning centers
- Organized classroom areas with distinct materials and tasks where small groups of children work semi-independently, supporting exploration and differentiated pacing.
- Concrete to abstract sequence
- An instructional progression in which children first manipulate real objects, then pictures, then symbols, building understanding before formal notation.
- Project approach
- An in-depth investigation of a topic chosen with children, moving through topic selection, investigation, and a culminating representation or sharing.
- Thematic unit
- A planned set of activities across several curriculum areas unified by one central topic or question, connecting learning to children's interests.
- Formative assessment
- Assessment conducted during instruction to identify what children understand and to guide immediate adjustments in teaching.
- Summative assessment
- Assessment administered at the end of an instructional period to document what a child has learned relative to goals or standards.
- Reliability
- The consistency and dependability of assessment results across repeated administrations, different raters, or parallel items.
- Validity
- The degree to which an assessment measures the construct it is intended to measure and supports the inferences made from scores.
- Norm-referenced test
- A test scored by comparing a child's performance with the performance of a representative sample of same-age peers.
- Criterion-referenced test
- A test scored by comparing a child's performance with a defined standard or set of skills rather than with other children.
- Anecdotal record
- A brief, objective written account of a specific observed event, typically including context and the child's exact words or actions.
- Running record
- A continuous, sequential narrative record of a child's behavior or reading, capturing actions and language as they occur for later analysis.
- Standard error of measurement
- An index of score inconsistency that defines a band around an obtained score within which a child's true score likely falls.
- Screening assessment
- A brief measure used to identify children who may need further evaluation; it does not diagnose or determine eligibility for services.
- Confidentiality
- The obligation to protect children's records and share information only with persons who have a legitimate educational need to know.
- Mandated reporting
- The legal duty of educators to report suspected child abuse or neglect to the designated agency; the reporter does not investigate the allegation.
- Family involvement framework
- Epstein's six types: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.
- Culturally responsive practice
- Teaching that incorporates children's home cultures and languages, seeks family input, and removes barriers to participation such as language access.
- IEP team
- The multidisciplinary group, including parents, that develops and reviews an individualized education program for an eligible child.
- Professional ethics code
- A written set of principles, such as NAEYC's, guiding conduct toward children, families, and colleagues and addressing conflicts of interest.
- Reflective practice
- Systematically examining one's own teaching decisions and their effects on children in order to improve instruction over time.