Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments (AEPA) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Mastery!

The correct choice reflects an important aspect of infant cognitive and physical development. When infants realize they can move an object by kicking it, they demonstrate a phase of experimentation. This milestone indicates that infants are beginning to actively explore cause and effect, testing their abilities to manipulate their environment.

During this stage of experimentation, infants are not merely reacting to stimuli; they are engaging in purposeful actions for the sake of exploration, which is fundamental to their learning process. They begin to understand that their movements can influence the world around them, which promotes further cognitive development and motor skills.

In contrast, understanding object permanence involves recognizing that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight, a concept that typically develops during the sensorimotor stage but does not directly relate to an infant's ability to move objects. Reflexive action refers to involuntary responses that occur without conscious thought, which a child exhibits at earlier developmental stages. Foraging behavior is a term better suited for animals seeking food and is not a relevant concept for this context regarding infant development.