Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Core Considerations for Developmentally Appropriate Decision Making

By framing teaching as decision making, DAP aims to provide guidelines that should inform decisions on all [Page 244]levels of the educational process: the real-time decisions teachers make in the classroom while interacting with children, the decisions around curriculum design and selection, and the policy decisions that affect school districts, state education standards, and national laws and policies. DAP encourages all who are involved in education to make these decisions intentionally, by always taking into account the following three areas.

• 1.
  Child development principles. The NAEYC lists 12 principles, shaped by scientific evidence and widely accepted theories of development, which decision makers need to understand and use to inform their practices. For example, one principle is that development is the result of both biological maturation and experience; another principle states that secure attachments and positive peer relationships are necessary for optimal learning and development. DAP encourages educators to understand the theory and research behind the sequential trajectory of development that all children generally follow; with these in mind, teaching practices should be tailored to children of different ages and who are in different developmental stages.
• 2.
  The individual child. DAP notes that each individual child has unique needs. Children reach developmental milestones at different paces and have different temperaments and personal interests; these should influence how teachers go about supporting their learning and development.
• 3.
  The social and cultural contexts in which the children live. The final consideration for educators’ decision making is children’s unique cultural, linguistic, and racial backgrounds. For example, teachers must consider how to make children who are English language learners comfortable when coming to school for the first time, how to communicate with immigrant parents and respect child rearing practices that might differ from mainstream American methods, or take into account psychological and educational implications for a child whose race is the classroom minority.

Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practice

In addition, DAP presents the following five guidelines as goals for how developmentally appropriate education should manifest itself in practice.

• 1.
  Creating a caring community of learners
• 2.
  Teaching to enhance development and learning
• 3.
  Planning curriculum to achieve important goals
• 4.
  Assessing children’s development and learning
• 5.
  Establishing reciprocal relationships with families

These guidelines also argue that teachers cannot implement DAP standards without being properly supported by a system of policies and funding that reflects the principles of DAP. In order for teachers to create developmentally appropriate learning environments, policymakers must provide clear and fair curriculum standards, professional development and fair wages for teachers, program evaluation, and funding for educational institutions.

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