AEPA Special Education: Early Childhood Exam

The Special Education: Early Childhood test measures your knowledge according to the Arizona Academic Standards. Success on the test indicates that you are qualified to teach this subject in Arizona public schools. The test content is drawn from three subareas based on AEPA learning objectives: Understanding Young Children with Special Needs (30% of the test); Promoting Young Children's Development and Learning (50%); and Working in a Collaborative Learning Community (20%). Specific topics include learning processes and various aspects of disabilities (e.g., their significance for development), the assessment of young children with special needs (e.g., with multidisciplinary teams), and meeting their educational needs, such as through programs and family service plans. Test-takers should know strategies (including individual and group management strategies) for creating a developmentally appropriate learning environment for young children with special needs, an environment that promotes qualities such as confidence, autonomy, emergent literacy, and development (e.g., social and cognitive). They should know how to partner with AzEIP (Arizona Early Intervention Program), schools, families, and communities. The test also covers the history, philosophy, and legal and ethical issues of early childhood special education.

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AEPA Special Education: Early Childhood Practice Questions

Special Education: Early Childhood

1. Which of the following is NOT included in an Individual Family Service Plan?

A: summary of the present level of development
B: summary of the vocational skill progress of the student
C: statement of major expected outcomes
D: name of the case manager

2. In the _____ model of language acquisition, an internal critical sense is developed through formal learning and informal language display.

A: universal grammar
B: comprehension
C: silent
D: monitor

3. In order to determine why a student is acting a certain way, teachers often perform a _____.

A: Wug test
B: functional behavioral assessment
C: spatial analysis
D: career survey

4. Autistic children sometimes display _____, the habit of repeating what another person says.

A: echolalia
B: synesthesia
C: dysgraphia
D: dyslexia

5. Which of the following is NOT considered to be a component of giftedness?

A: physical fitness
B: creativity
C: above average intelligence
D: task commitment

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Answer key

1. B. IFSPs are typically created for infants and young children, who will not yet be focusing on vocational skills.
2. D. The monitor model is so named because students are using what they have learned to monitor their linguistic performance.
3. B. An FBA is a process of close observation with the aim of determining the student's motives.
4. A. Echolalia is also sometimes present in children with aphasia, Tourette syndrome, Asperger syndrome, and schizophrenia.
5. C. Physical fitness is not included in academic tests of giftedness.