Week 1 Quiz

Which statement describes child development as this course defines it?

Select one.

• The study of how people change from birth through old age, giving each decade of adult life the same attention as childhood
• A clinical method for assessing whether an individual child is ahead of or behind schedule
• The study of how and why children change from conception through adolescence, across domains that affect one another
• A set of research-based rules that tells each family exactly how it should raise its own children at home

An illustrative 3-year-old's vocabulary grows by a few words at a time, week after week, with no sudden jump. Which view of change does this example fit best?

Select one.

• Continuity, because the change is gradual, a little more at a time
• Discontinuity, because learning words is a stage the child enters all at once
• A non-normative influence, because vocabulary differs from child to child
• Context-specific change, because words always depend on the family

An illustrative toddler starts walking, reaches shelves that were out of reach, and meets new limits and new frustration from the adults nearby. What does this sequence show about the three domains?

Select one.

• The physical domain develops on its own separate track, apart from the child's feelings, thinking, and relationships
• A change in one domain moves the others, since walking opened new places, new limits, and new feelings
• The social-emotional domain begins only after the cognitive domain is complete
• Frustration at this point means the toddler is behind in social-emotional development

In the running case (illustrative), record R7 shows the child at 11 years. Which statement matches how this course treats that record's period?

Select one.

• R7 belongs in adolescence and nowhere else, because adolescence begins exactly on the eleventh birthday for every child
• R7 fits no period, because the course's periods leave a gap at age 11
• R7 must be moved to a new period each time the child has a birthday
• R7 sits where middle childhood meets adolescence, and the course reads it with middle childhood

The running case (illustrative) has 8 records: R1 newborn, R2 9 months, R3 14 months, R4 2½ years, R5 4 years, R6 7 years, R7 11 years, and R8 15 years. How many of the records fall in infancy and toddlerhood (birth to about 2)?

Select one.

• 2 records
• 3 records
• 4 records
• 5 records

Read by the concept each record carries, the running case's 8 records give 13 domain readings (physical 4, cognitive 5, social-emotional 4). Why are there more readings than records?

Select one.

• The prenatal period adds 5 extra readings to the tally even though the running case has no prenatal record at all
• Each record is counted twice so that every domain gets a fair share
• Some records show more than one domain: R2 shows two, and R3 and R8 show all three
• The tally double-counts R1 because a newborn is in two periods at once

An illustrative child inherits the capacity to learn language and grows up hearing two languages at home, then speaks both. Which statement fits the course's position on nature and nurture?

Select one.

• Nature wins here, because the capacity for language was inherited
• Nurture wins here, because the languages came from the home
• Nature and nurture take turns, with genes doing all of the work first and experience acting only later in childhood
• Genes and experience worked together, since the inherited capacity met the languages the child heard

Which of these events is a non-normative influence on an illustrative 8-year-old's development?

Select one.

• A serious illness that keeps the child in the hospital for three months
• Starting a new school year along with the rest of the class
• Moving up from the first school grade to the second with age-mates
• Joining the neighborhood's age-mates in the town's summer reading program

An illustrative parent's employer moves the parent to a late shift, and the parent's 6-year-old now goes to bed an hour later. The child has never been to the parent's job. In Bronfenbrenner's (1979) model, which system is the parent's workplace for the child?

Select one.

• The microsystem
• The mesosystem
• The exosystem
• The macrosystem

In running-case record R3 (illustrative), a 14-month-old is dropped off at a childcare center in the morning. Which of these are microsystems for the child? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• The family
• The childcare center
• The handoff between parent and caregiver at drop-off
• A parent's workplace
• The culture's values about who cares for young children