FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

At what stage do children primarily engage in trial and error to learn about their environment?

1. Preoperational Stage

2. Concrete Operational Stage

3. Formal Operational Stage

4. Sensorimotor Stage

The correct answer is: Sensorimotor Stage

Children primarily engage in trial and error during the sensorimotor stage, which is characterized by infants learning about their surroundings through direct sensory experiences and motor activities. In this stage, which lasts from birth to approximately two years old, children explore their environment by physically interacting with objects and through activities such as reaching, grasping, and manipulating. Trial and error is a fundamental learning strategy during this period, as children actively experiment to observe what happens when they perform certain actions. For example, an infant may drop a toy repeatedly to see how it falls or shake it to hear the sound it makes. This hands-on exploration is critical because it helps children make sense of the world around them and understand cause-and-effect relationships. While other developmental stages involve more complex reasoning and understanding, the sensorimotor stage is distinctively focused on immediate exploration through trial and error, setting the foundation for future cognitive development.