DECE 1 Solved Guess Paper 2026 for Organizing Child Care Services (IGNOU Diploma in Early Childhood Care and Education)

Sample 1: Planning and analysing a schedule of activities

Question: (a) A preschool educator has prepared a three-day schedule for a group of four-year-old children. With reference to the principles of planning schedules, critically analyse whether the schedule is appropriate, giving justification. (b) State the main aspects you would keep in mind while formulating a day's schedule.

Answer (a): A schedule is appropriate only if it meets a set of planning principles. Each principle works as a checkpoint for the analysis.

1. Cover all areas of development: across a week, include activities for physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional growth.
2. Allow vigorous physical activity: running, jumping and climbing, because sitting in one place tires children quickly.
3. Mix indoor and outdoor play: alternate large-muscle outdoor play with small-muscle indoor play.
4. Balance structured and free play: educator-led activities must sit alongside free play where children choose.
5. Group and individual activities: group work builds cooperation; individual work lets the child do something on her own.
6. Familiar and new activities: familiar ones give mastery, new ones prevent boredom.
7. Reasonable pace: about 20 to 25 minutes per activity so children are not rushed.

A schedule that repeats only quiet indoor play, skips a developmental area or hurries children would be judged inappropriate. One that balances all seven principles is appropriate.

Answer (b): Each activity needs a clear purpose; vigorous activities should alternate with restful ones; time must be set for routines such as arrival, snacks, washing up and departure; and the pace should leave the educator time to talk with each child.

Conclusion: A good schedule balances structured play and free play, vigorous and restful, indoor and outdoor, and group and individual activities, covering every area of development across the week.

Sample 2: Features of thinking of the preschool child

Question: Explain, giving examples, the features of thinking of the preschool child (3 to 6 years), with special reference to perspective-taking, conservation and animism.

Egocentrism: preschoolers assume others see and feel things exactly as they do. If a child closes her eyes, she may believe others cannot see her either. Piaget called this quality of thought egocentrism.

Conservation: this is understanding that quantity stays the same when shape changes, as long as nothing is added or removed. In Piaget's clay experiment, preschoolers thought a flattened ball held a different amount of clay. The ability develops only after the preschool years, moving from no conservation to a transitional stage and then true conservation.

Animism: preschoolers believe objects are alive and have feelings. A child may say the sun sets "because it is tired", or sit gently so the chair does not get hurt. Things that move, like clouds or a kicked stone, seem alive to her.

Other features: symbolic thought (one thing stands for another), matching and grouping by a common property, and seriation, which is arranging items by increasing or decreasing size.

Conclusion: Egocentrism, the inability to conserve and animism show that preschoolers reason differently from adults, so learning experiences must suit this stage.

Sample 3: Characteristics of play and play as the medium of learning

Question: (a) Explain the characteristics of play. (b) "Children's play should be the medium of learning in a preschool." Do you agree? Give reasons with examples.

Answer (a): Play has three characteristics. It is fun, since any activity the child enjoys counts as play. It is its own reward, like a child who jumps off a step again and again simply for the joy of it. And it is spontaneous and active, because the child joins by her own will and often follows her own rules.

Answer (b): Yes, play should be the medium of learning, for five reasons.

1. Learning is fun: a child learns the value of coins far better by playing "buying and selling vegetables" than through a lecture.
2. All-round development: one outdoor game builds motor skills and also teaches turn-taking.
3. It suits the child's nature: young children lose attention fast, and play holds it.
4. It is self-chosen: active involvement deepens learning.
5. It allows expression: children show moods and feelings through play, which supports emotional growth.

Conclusion: Because play is enjoyable, self-chosen and develops many areas together, it should be the medium of learning in the preschool.

Sample 4: Stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and attachment

Question: (a) Describe and differentiate between stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. (b) What is attachment and why is it important for the child?

Answer (a): Stranger anxiety is the fear an infant shows when an unfamiliar adult approaches. Her face tightens and she cries, then calms down when the stranger leaves. Separation anxiety is the distress she feels when parted from the people she is attached to; around ten or eleven months she follows parents from room to room.

Answer (b): Attachment is the emotional bond between the caregiver and the infant, formed through feeding, touch, smiling, talking and playing. It is a two-way process and grows from close contact and social stimulation, not only from physical needs being met.

It matters because it gives the child emotional security. A securely attached child explores confidently, while children who cannot form attachments, as in some institutions without emotional interaction, may struggle with relationships later.

Conclusion: Both anxieties are normal fears that arise from attachment, and attachment itself is the base for healthy social and emotional development.

Sample 5: Nurturing creativity and learning through real experience

Question: (a) Explain the principles an educator must keep in mind to nurture the creativity of preschool children. (b) Why should we use real objects or real experiences instead of lectures?

Answer (a): With young children, creativity is about self-expression rather than the finished product. Five principles guide the educator.

1. Make children feel creative: keep anxiety low and the mood relaxed, so trying something new feels safe.
2. Value the process over the product: the freedom to experiment matters more than the result.
3. Avoid rewarding what the child already enjoys: external rewards can reduce inner motivation.
4. Encourage choices: offer drawing, painting or clay instead of one imposed task.
5. Support without interfering: help when needed but leave room to explore.

Answer (b): Young children learn best by doing. A lecture cannot hold their attention, but handling objects keeps them involved. They understand "heavy" and "light" by lifting things, remember what they did better than what they heard, and build real understanding through trips and simple experiments.

Conclusion: Creativity grows with choice, freedom and low anxiety, and concepts are learnt far better through direct experience than through talk.