Praxis (5547)

1. Question 1 · Human Development and Individualized Learning Needs

   Lena, a 5-year-old with a profound intellectual disability, reaches eagerly for a musical toy while it is in view. When her teacher covers the toy with a cloth as Lena watches, Lena immediately stops looking for it and turns away.

   Lena's response indicates that she has not yet developed which of the following?
   • A.Cause-and-effect understanding
   • B.Object permanence
   • C.Conservation of quantity
   • D.Reversibility of operations
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. Object permanence

   Searching for an object after it is hidden shows object permanence, a sensorimotor-stage achievement; Lena loses interest as soon as the toy is out of sight. Cause-and-effect understanding concerns producing an outcome with an action (such as hitting a switch to start music), which this task does not test; conservation and reversibility are much later concrete-operational skills.

2. Question 2 · Human Development and Individualized Learning Needs

   Luis, 16, returned to school after a severe traumatic brain injury that primarily damaged his frontal lobes. He remembers many facts and routines from before the injury, but he now blurts out comments, has trouble starting and sequencing multistep tasks, and becomes frustrated quickly when plans change.

   Which support best addresses the difficulties most associated with Luis's injury?
   • A.Daily reteaching of basic vocabulary words that he had learned before the injury
   • B.External organizers such as step-by-step task checklists and scheduled breaks
   • C.Large-print, high-contrast versions of all of his written classroom materials
   • D.Placement in reading materials that match his pre-injury reading test scores
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. External organizers such as step-by-step task checklists and scheduled breaks

   Frontal lobe injury mainly affects executive functions, such as starting, planning, sequencing and controlling impulses, so external organizers and planned breaks support exactly those deficits. His previously learned knowledge is relatively preserved, so reteaching old vocabulary misses the problem, and pre-injury scores do not reflect his current needs.

3. Question 3 · Planning and Instruction and the Learning Environment

   Noah, a 9-year-old with autism, screams and drops to the floor during fire drills. His teacher decides to write a social story to help him prepare for the next drill.

   Which feature would best reflect recommended practice for writing the story?
   • A.One reading of the story right after the next drill ends to review what went wrong
   • B.Mostly directive sentences listing each action Noah is required to take
   • C.A list of the consequences Noah will receive if he screams during a drill
   • D.Mostly descriptive sentences about what happens, written from Noah's view
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D. Mostly descriptive sentences about what happens, written from Noah's view

   Social stories describe a situation, what others do and why, using mostly descriptive and perspective sentences from the student's point of view, and they are reviewed before the event. Stories built mainly on directives or consequences lose the explanatory purpose of the strategy.

4. Question 4 · Human Development and Individualized Learning Needs

   Darnell, a 19-year-old with a severe intellectual disability, starts a job next month. He must be at the curb when his bus arrives at 7:45 each morning. He cannot yet tell time on any clock.

   Which approach is most functional for this goal?
   • A.Teach him to match a digital watch to a 7:45 card with a bus picture
   • B.Teach him to count by fives to 60 before he begins using a watch at home
   • C.Teach the days of the week and months first to build a sense of time
   • D.Teach analog time to the hour, then the half hour, before working on 7:45
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Teach him to match a digital watch to a 7:45 card with a bus picture

   A functional approach teaches the specific time-telling response Darnell needs now, matching a digital display to a time card paired with the activity. A developmental sequence of analog time or prerequisite counting may delay his independence on the job for years.

5. Question 5 · Assessment

   Marcus, 16, has autism with high support needs and a severe intellectual disability. He attends a self-contained class in a public high school. During morning arrival, a staff member found a kitchen knife in his backpack; Marcus had taken it from a drawer at home. The district code of conduct calls for long-term suspension for weapons possession. Marcus has had no other removals this school year.

   Under IDEA, which of the following actions may school personnel take in response to this incident?
   • A.Remove Marcus to an interim alternative educational setting only after a hearing officer orders the change of placement
   • B.Expel Marcus under the code of conduct, because weapons offenses are excluded from IDEA's discipline protections
   • C.Remove Marcus to an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days only if the team finds the behavior was not a manifestation
   • D.Remove Marcus to an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days, regardless of any manifestation finding
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D. Remove Marcus to an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days, regardless of any manifestation finding

   Weapons, illegal drugs and serious bodily injury are special circumstances: school personnel may remove the student to an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days regardless of the manifestation determination. Limiting the removal to non-manifestation findings misstates the rule, and a hearing officer order is needed only for dangerous behavior that does not involve these special circumstances.

6. Question 6 · Human Development and Individualized Learning Needs

   Rosa, a 10-year-old with a severe intellectual disability, has recently begun holding a block to her ear and "talking" into it as if it were a phone. She also pretends to feed a doll with an empty spoon during play.

   In Piaget's framework, Rosa's new behavior shows the emergence of which of the following?
   • A.Conservation
   • B.Hypothetical reasoning
   • C.Symbolic thought
   • D.Object permanence
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C. Symbolic thought

   Using one object to stand for another and pretend play show symbolic (representational) thought, which marks the transition into Piaget's preoperational stage. Rosa must already have object permanence to play this way, but pretending goes beyond it. Conservation and hypothetical reasoning belong to the later concrete and formal operational stages.

7. Question 7 · Human Development and Individualized Learning Needs

   Maya, 14, has dyskinetic (athetoid) cerebral palsy with involuntary writhing movements and dysarthric speech that unfamiliar listeners find hard to understand. Several general education teachers assume she cannot follow grade-level lessons. When given an eye-gaze board with answer choices, she answers grade-level comprehension questions accurately.

   Which conclusion is best supported?
   • A.Her unclear speech indicates a significant receptive language disorder
   • B.Her accurate answers on the board are most likely the result of prompting
   • C.Her involuntary movements indicate that she has spastic cerebral palsy
   • D.Her motor and speech impairments have been masking her understanding
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D. Her motor and speech impairments have been masking her understanding

   Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement and posture. Many people with dyskinetic CP have average cognition, and Maya's accurate eye-gaze responses show that her motor and speech impairments, not her understanding, limited what others assumed. Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder, not a receptive language disorder, and involuntary writhing movements describe the dyskinetic type, not the spastic type.

8. Question 8 · Planning and Instruction and the Learning Environment

   A service coordinator is meeting with the parents of Ezra, a 22-month-old with Down syndrome and a heart condition, to develop his first plan for early intervention services under Part C of IDEA.

   Which component distinguishes this plan from an IEP?
   • A.The family's resources, priorities, and concerns
   • B.A description of the specific services that will be provided
   • C.A statement of the dates services will begin and how often
   • D.A statement of present levels of development or performance
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. The family's resources, priorities, and concerns

   The IFSP is family-centered and, with the family's agreement, includes a statement of the family's resources, priorities and concerns, along with services in natural environments. Present levels, services, and start dates and frequency appear in both an IFSP and an IEP.

9. Question 9 · Human Development and Individualized Learning Needs

   A parent sends a note asking the teacher to give her son, a 14-year-old with a seizure disorder, an extra dose of his seizure medication at lunch because "he seemed off this morning." The dose is not in his physician's orders or health plan.

   Which of the following is the teacher's most appropriate action?
   • A.Withhold the dose and refer the request to the school nurse
   • B.Ask a paraprofessional to give the dose so the teacher is not liable
   • C.Give the dose, since a parent's written note serves as authorization
   • D.Give half of the dose as a compromise and watch him closely afterward
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Withhold the dose and refer the request to the school nurse

   Schools give medication only according to physician orders and district policy, through the nurse or delegated trained staff, so a parent note alone does not authorize an extra dose. The teacher should refer the request to the nurse, who can contact the family and physician.

10. Question 10 · Assessment

    Jordan, 13, is eligible under multiple disabilities (spastic cerebral palsy and a severe intellectual disability). His last full evaluation was completed almost three years ago. This year he began using an eye-gaze speech-generating device.

    At a planning meeting, his mother says she disagrees with the earlier cognitive testing because it required spoken and pointing responses that Jordan could not physically give. The district proposes to reevaluate him.

    Which statement about Jordan's reevaluation is accurate under IDEA?
    • A.It must occur every year as part of the annual review of Jordan's IEP and present levels
    • B.It must occur every 3 years, and neither the parent nor the district may agree to waive or postpone it
    • C.It may be skipped whenever the teacher documents adequate progress on Jordan's IEP goals
    • D.It must occur at least once every 3 years unless the parent and district agree it is unnecessary
    Show answer and explanation

    Answer: D. It must occur at least once every 3 years unless the parent and district agree it is unnecessary

    IDEA requires a reevaluation at least once every 3 years unless the parent and the district agree it is unnecessary, and no more than once a year unless they agree otherwise. The annual IEP review is a separate requirement and does not substitute for a reevaluation.

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