SkillsUSA Early Childhood Education Practice Test 2026 – Complete Exam Prep

Self-awareness begins in infancy. In this stage, babies start to differentiate their own body and actions from the people and objects around them and to notice that their actions can affect the world. This early sense of being a separate, initiating agent lays the foundation for a basic self that later develops into a more explicit self-concept as they grow. As children move into the toddler and preschool years, self-recognition and use of personal pronouns become clearer signs of expanding self-understanding, but the initial formation of the concept of self starts in infancy.