Deck 8: Play and Intellectual Development

Question 1

According to Vygotsky (1978), the value of play materials is that they

A) help children to reduce their anxiety.
B) make it easier for children to relate to their peers.
C) help adults influence and control their children.
D) help children to separate themselves from concrete reality.
E) encourage children to develop their creativity.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The realization that many individual parts can be put together to make a whole is referred to as

A) subdivision.
B) equivalency.
C) measurement.
D) conservation.
E) unit iteration.

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Creative children display a number of characteristics. Which of the following is not one of those characteristics?

A) Persistence
B) A high energy level
C) Self-confidence
D) Independence of judgment
E) A high level of intelligence.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Four-year-old Brian is asked to sort blocks of different shapes, and so he arranges them in a circle and says "I made a necklace", illustrating

A) logical classification.
B) a graphic collection.
C) seriation.
D) conservation.
E) egocentrism.

Question 5

Which of the following types of knowledge was probably encoded by enactive representation?

A) riding a bicycle or tying a knot in a necktie
B) solving a mathematics equation
C) conserving liquid
D) mentally measuring the width of a room
E) putting blocks back in their appropriate places on the shelf

Question 6

When a preschooler believes that the amount of liquid in a tall thin glass actually changes when the liquid is poured into a short wide bowl, we conclude that the child cannot

A) seriate.
B) classify.
C) measure.
D) conserve.
E) all of the above

Question 7

Children seem to derive more meaning from stories that are read to them if

A) they already know how to read.
B) the teacher reads the stories slowly.
C) the stories are unfamiliar to them.
D) the stories have human rather than animal characters.
E) they are given the opportunity to act out scenes from the stories.

Question 8

Convergent thinking

A) is applied in multiple-solution problems.
B) is closely related to the processes of creativity.
C) rarely occurs in children under the age of five.
D) can be improved by play during the preschool years.
E) none of the above

Question 9

Divergent problem-solving is a key element in successful performance on

A) intelligence tests.
B) classroom tests.
C) tests of creativity.
D) tests of moral reasoning.
E) all of the above

Question 10

The concept of emergent literacy means that

A) children start to become literate long before they are actually able to read and write.
B) the ability to read and write appears very suddenly at the age of five.
C) children should not be given books to play with until they are able to read.
D) children are able to read much earlier than most adults realize.
E) reading cannot be taught to children, and they will do it when they're ready.

Question 11

Play materials such as paint and clay fit into the category of _______ toys.

A) fluid construction
B) structured construction
C) microsymbolic
D) macrosymbolic

Question 12

Which of the following play materials would be most likely to require a child to engage in convergent thing?

A) finger paints
B) picture puzzles
C) blocks
D) clay
E) crayons and paper

Question 13

The ability to branch out from a starting point and consider a variety of possible solutions to a problem is known as

A) hypothetical reasoning.
B) decontextualization.
C) convergent thinking.
D) intelligence.
E) divergent thinking.

Question 14

It is not until the age of ______________ that a mature understanding of spatial concepts is acquired.

A) three
B) five or six
C) seven or eight
D) twelve or thirteen
E) eighteen

Question 15

Miniature life toys, such as cars and trucks, dolls, and toy buildings fit into the category of _________ toys.

A) fluid construction
B) structured construction
C) microsymbolic
D) macrosymbolic

Question 16

Children are more likely to consider dance to be play and to enjoy the experience if

A) adults teach them how to imitate dance steps.
B) adults leave them alone and make no effort to teach them to dance.
C) they are praised for making the dance moves correctly.
D) the teacher uses an open-ended approach.
E) there is no music to accompany the dance.

Question 17

One of the major intellectual contributions of water play is that children can enhance their ability to use principles of

A) balance.
B) equivalency.
C) fluency.
D) measurement.
E) creative movement.

Question 18

Spatial visualization is the ability to

A) sort objects according to their common features.
B) imagine how a two- or three-dimensional shape would look if rotated in space.
C) arrange a group of different-size blocks in the shapes of squares, rectangles, and circles
D) hold an impression of a shape in your mind and be able to find it in a more complex pattern.
E) imagine what a block structure will look like before you start to build it.

Question 19

In order to understand how many blocks arranged in a lengthwise fashion will correspond to another group of blocks laid widthwise, a child needs an understanding of

A) equivalency.
B) measurement.
C) graphic collections.
D) conservation.
E) unit iteration.

Question 20

Graphic collections refer to the

A) tendency of young children to collect sets of objects.
B) sorting strategies of preschool children.
C) inability of preschool children to conserve.
D) word games often played by preschool children.
E) mature classification strategies of school-age children.

Question 21

Playing with blocks has been found to develop the spatial skills of spatial visualization and _______ _______, both of which are necessary for understanding mathematical concepts.

Question 22

It is no longer widely accepted that the acquisition of reading and writing are specific events that occur when a child had reached an appropriate level of readiness.

Question 23

Children taught to dance with an imitative approach seem to enjoy dancing more than children taught with an open-ended approach.

Question 24

According to Piaget, the child's ear?liest concepts are consistent action patterns, which he referred to as __________.

Question 25

Divergent thinking is involved in creativity but convergent thinking is not.

Question 26

__________ is the recognition that space can be divided into different-size units and that a certain number of units of one size correspond to a different number of units of another.

Question 27

Divergent problem solving has been related to performance on conventional intelligence and classroom tests.

Question 28

Creativity is a personality characteristic, an ____________ process, and it results in a creative product.

Question 29

The most widely held view today of the development of reading and writing is known as the concept of ________ _________.

Question 30

Preschool children often fail to use logic when they classify and instead rely only on _________.

Question 31

Enactive representation occurs when a person encodes information about the world in physical movement instead of or as well as mentally.

Question 32

Subdivision is the ability to separate distances mentally into smaller segments.

Question 33

A _________ spa?tial concept allows a child to think of space as an overall network, independent of the number or the arrangement of elements within it.

Question 34

Single-solution problems require the ability to engage in what is known as __________ problem solving.

Question 35

The experience of putting one's blocks away after playing with them can offer opportunities to develop conservation ability.

Question 36

Both literacy and make-believe play involve __________ language, meaning that the words used often refer to objects not immediately present.

Question 37

The link between fantasy play and divergent thinking can be found in the concept of decentration.

Question 38

Babbling can be thought of as a form of infant play.

Question 39

Creative children are more likely to have a well-developed sense of humor.

Question 40

The relationship between play and divergent thinking is both complex and ____________.

Question 41

Specifically describe the role of block play in teaching children a variety of quantitative and spatial skills, giving concrete examples whenever appropriate.

Question 42

If you could give a child only one toy, or type of toy, and wanted to provide the greatest amount of intellectual stimulation possible, what would you choose? Why?

Question 43

Toys that have different functions have been found to contribute in different ways to children's intellectual growth. Describe four categories of toys and indicate which aspects of intellectual functioning each is most likely to facilitate.

Question 44

You are asked to speak to a parent group about the toys that are most likely to facilitate divergent thinking, as well as those least likely to do so. What kinds of materials would you recommend to the parents, and what would you advise them to stay away from?

Question 45

Describe the types of infant and toddler play materials that are predictive of successful performance on tests of development, as well as on later intelligence tests.

Question 46

Define the concept of conservation, and explain how either play with clay or water play can help a child understand this concept.

Question 47

Define and give examples of convergent and divergent thinking, making certain to discuss the differences between them. Which do you think is most often required of children in educational settings? Explain your answer.

Question 48

Describe and provide examples of the four different types of language play that occur in early childhood.