On asking a child "What is area?", he/she answered length × breadth. What can you say about the child's understanding about the concept of area?

The correct answer is Option 2: The child used the area of rectangle as general idea of area of any closed shape.

Explanation:

Area is a measure of the total two-dimensional space enclosed within any boundary or shape (such as circles, triangles, rectangles, or irregular polygons). Different geometric shapes have distinct formulas to calculate their area.

When the child responds that area is "length × breadth", they are specifically stating the formula used for calculating the area of a rectangle. This indicates that the child understands how to calculate the area for a specific shape (a rectangle), but has generalized this specific formula as the universal definition for the area of all closed shapes.

Therefore, the child has used the concept of the area of a rectangle as a general idea for the concept of area as a whole.