Developmentally Appropriate
Practices (DAP)
Anne Marie R. Ramos, Ph.D
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What is Developmentally Appropriate
Practices (DAP)?
Prepared by Dr. Anne Marie R. Ramos
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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):
[Link] 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
Based on learning experiences
Based on the knowledge of
which are meaningful, relevant
typical development of
and respectful.
children (how children
develop & learn)
Individual Appropriateness
Individual Appropriateness
Based on understanding of individual
children’s strengths, growth patterns,
interests, and experiences.
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Age Appropriateness
There are universal, predictable
sequences of growth and change that
occur in children.
These predictable changes occur in all
domains of development.
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Implications (Age Appropriateness)
• Teachers should have knowledge of typical
child development for the age span served by
the program.
• This knowledge provides a framework from
which teachers prepare the learning
environment and plan appropriate
experiences
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Individual Appropriateness
Each child is a unique person
• with an individual pattern and timing
of growth,
• individual personality,
• learning styles,
• multiple intelligences,
• family background
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Implications
(Individual Appropriateness)
• Both the curriculum and adults’
interactions with children should be
responsive to individual differences
• Experiences should match the child’s
developing abilities while challenging their
interest and understanding.
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Social & Cultural
Appropriateness
A child’s unique personality is
developed as a result of his/her own
personal history and the experiences
he/she has within cultural group that
he/she belongs to.
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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.
• Early childhood teachers must
demonstrate respect for the child and his
or her family by taking into account the
social and cultural context in which they
live.
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What must teachers do in order to
successfully engage in DAP
(Copple & Bredekamp, 2006)?
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1. Meet children where they are (level of
development), as individuals and as a
group
Knowing what children are generally capable
of and how they learn, within a given age
range, provides teachers with a starting point
for planning and organizing a program.
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2. Help each child attain challenging and
achievable goals that contribute to his
or her ongoing development and
learning.
Meeting learners where they are is
important, but is just beginning. Activities
must be challenging but not so difficult that
children fail to achieve them.
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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)
2. Individualizing the program to suit
particular children.
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3. Recognizing the importance of child-initiated
activity.
4. Recognizing the significance of play as a
vehicle for learning.
5. Creating flexible, stimulating classroom
environments.
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6. Using an integrated curriculum.
7. Learning by doing.
8. Giving children choices about what and
how they learn.
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9. Continually assessing individual children
and the program as a whole.
10. Forming partnerships with family.
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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)
2. Expecting all children to learn the same things
at the same time in the same way.
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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.
4. Treating play as superflous or unacceptable.
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5. Creating rigid, uninteresting classroom
environments.
6. Fragmenting and compartmentalizing
curricula into isolated lessons that have no
relation to one another
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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.
8. Denying opportunities to make choices or to
function as active decision makers in the
learning process.
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9. Assessing children’s learning in ways that are
unrelated to their classroom experiences.
10. Treating parents & family members as
adversaries
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Reference
Kostelnick, et al (2004). Developmentally
appropriate curriculum: Best practices in
early childhood curriculum. New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc.
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