Developmentally Appropriate Practices Framework
Developmentally Appropriate Practices Framework
Practices (DAP)
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What is Developmentally Appropriate
Practices (DAP)?
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Developmentally Appropriate Practices is a
way of teaching that engage children’s
interests and adapt for their age, experience,
and ability to help them meet challenging and
achievable learning goals (Bredekamp, ,2011, p.70).
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How do teachers make
decisions about what is
developmentally appropriate for
young children?
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ECE Teachers/Practitioners
make sound decisions based on 3
important sources of knowledge
(Bredekamp & Copple,1997):
1.What they know about how children
develop and learn.
2. What they know about the strengths,
needs, and interests of individual
children.
3. What they know about the social &
cultural contexts in which children live.
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Three Dimensions of Developmental
Appropriateness
Social & Cultural
Age Appropriateness Appropriateness
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Age Appropriateness
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Implications (Age Appropriateness)
• Teachers should have knowledge of typical
child development for the age span served by
the program.
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Individual Appropriateness
Each child is a unique person
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Social & Cultural
Appropriateness
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Implications
(Social and Cultural Appropriateness)
• Decisions about how to care for and
educate young children cannot be made
without knowledge of the child’s cultural
and social context.
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1. Meet children where they are (level of
development), as individuals and as a
group
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2. Help each child attain challenging and
achievable goals that contribute to his
or her ongoing development and
learning.
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10 Fundamental Practices that
Characterize the DAP
Philosophy
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1. Addressing the “whole”child (all
domains of development must be
equally addressed)
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3. Recognizing the importance of child-initiated
activity.
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6. Using an integrated curriculum.
7. Learning by doing.
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9. Continually assessing individual children
and the program as a whole.
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Inappropriate Practices
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1. Focusing on limited aspects of child
development and learning (e.g. cognitive or
social)
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3. Creating programs dominated by teacher-
centered activities in which the children’s role
is passive and only one response is judged
acceptable.
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5. Creating rigid, uninteresting classroom
environments.
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7. Expecting children to learn mostly through
listening and engaging in abstract activities
that have little meaning or relevance to them.
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9. Assessing children’s learning in ways that are
unrelated to their classroom experiences.
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Reference
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