Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) are practices that have been researched and developed to be effective when teaching young children in the classroom. When educators make decisions in the classroom to help children reach their full potential developmentally appropriate practice is a good foundation to build classroom curriculum on. Educators create challengeable, but obtainable goals so children feel challenged along with accomplishment when their goals are reached. There are three key areas that are emphasized when using developmentally appropriate practice. The first, is knowing the developmental stage a child is in. What predictions can be made by the age-related characteristics and development the child is experiencing? When an …show more content…
As the children mix colors with paint they learn cause and effect this will help in decision making later in age. This activity would help meet physical development helping children use their fine motor skills. The first, principle of developmentally appropriate practice teaches that all domains are interrelated and when children learn from one domain it effects other domains and is influenced by other skill set learned (NAECY, 2009). In the classroom when educators choose to disregard developmentally appropriate practice it can discourage or keep children from reaching their full potential. One of the examples of this would be a classroom that did not embrace diversity in the classroom. Limiting language, books, dolls or toys to just one ethnic group making non-white children feel left out or unimportant. In the classroom, another example of not choosing developmentally appropriate practice would be limiting children to just worksheets or flashcards which may not be age appropriate with small children who are more engaged in active learning than sitting for extended periods of time working on worksheets. Children need a variety of learning strategies to keep them engaged and encouraged to

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