Developmentally Appropriate Educational Environment Essay

In an early childhood setting, being observant gives professionals and family members a helpful portrait of the children in their care, and as future professionals it helps us see how intellectual, emotional, social, and physical development occurs in children. Observing, documenting, and assessing young children shows how they progress from one stage to the next or when there is a delay in progression. The reason we observe young children is that “there is so much that demands attention and response; at the same time, by building in systematic observation, teachers can improve their teaching, construct theory, assess children, assist families, and solve problems” (Gordon and Browne, p.180). It gives dynamic information about each child’s learning styles, interests, abilities, and needs. Observation helps teachers improve teaching by making them become more objective and self-aware of biases they may have. It encourages us to remember that early childhood development is highly individualized, so customizing activities to benefit each child will help them utilize their abilities to their fullest potentials, and through this we will be able to recognize what behaviors are typical of various age groups. The reason we document our observations is so that we can keep records and show proper evidence of each child’s individual growth and participation in classroom activities. With good documentation, family members will able to see the progression made by their child.

To provide a developmentally appropriate learning environment that is safe, healthy, respectful and supportive of children and families. For the learning environment to be safe, I ensure that I always check identification, and have parents notify me whenever someone new to the list will be picking up. I always bring my roster with me to ensure I have all my children with me. I do a roll call every time we get to a new area after traveling anywhere away from our room, and before leaving the room. Another way that I make the learning environment safe is by covering all the outlets in the room, and making sure sharp or dangerous objects are put away, and out of the children’s reach. I put cleaning supplies and other chemicals in high locked cabinets.

In order to apply theories and models of child development to support children’s development we must get to know each individual child by building a good relationship with the children through play, communication and answering to their personal needs. Observation and assessment is also key so that we know what each child is capable of and what they are working towards/could be encouraged towards. Good communication with parents is also beneficial as it helps the carer to see what the child is doing at home and to identify if there are things they do or don’t do at nursery that is different from home. It also helps to work out ways of encouraging development at home and at nursery.

First off, lets start by explaining what DAP stands for: Developmentally Appropriate Practice. The National Association for the Education of Young Children first published on DAP in 1987. This is a code of ethics which describes the principles and guidelines for teaching children birth- age eight. The NAEYC was revised in 1997 and 2009 on concerns such as learning expectations, curriculum, role of cultural and language, as well as teaching practices. Teaching children in relation to their age, experience, capabilities, and interests is very important.

Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) refers to those teaching practices that ensure that young children learn and develop to their fullest potential. As most early childhood educators know, however, developing practices that promote optimal learning and development for all children can be an elusive goal. Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs (Copple&Bredekamp, 2009) makes clear, “whether or not what actually happens in the classroom is, in practice, developmentally appropriate is the result of myriad decisions at all levels by policy makers, administrators, teachers, and families about the care and education of young children. In order for educators and families to make the best decisions possible for the children and families they serve, it is critical that they have the support and resources of a proven curriculum model one that has research-based evidence of effectiveness.

After observing a nine month old child for this Child Observation paper, the author of this paper has taken copious notes during the session. The purpose of this paper is recognizing the biological, cognitive and psychosocial development of the child. The author of this paper identified the background history of the child, the observation made and the development process of the child.

Developmental Appropriate Practices (DAP) is a challenging approach to learning in an Early Childhood Classroom. Some challenges involved with ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for culturally diverse children? Classroom management is defined as activities created by teachers in the classroom with a positive climate that effect teaching and learning. (Martin & Sugarman, p.9, 1993). Teachers’ daily lesson incorporate the natural extension of the response of students culturally background by implementing knowledge, social experiences and their learning style.

Education act 2006 - The act imposes various minimum standards for independent schools in areas such as health and safety and have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils.

Preschool classroom’s fosters an exploratory play environment for children ages four to five to prepare students for private school kindergarten courses and utilizes North Carolina kindergarten standards to develop curriculum. Cumberland County public school system does not have the best reputation for educating students and has created a need for more private schools. Currently, we only offer a preschool program but plan to expand into the elementary school ages. As the new school year approaches I will be redesigning the classroom environment and

Children should be exposed to a variety of different learning environments to expand their minds and help them grow. Children tend to learn best surrounded by their peers, and to have the support system around them is crucial early on in life. Children thrive in highly interactive environments and will learn best by doing instead of being taught straight from the book. I observed this first hand and was surprised to see the results of how the children interacted with each other and the things that surrounded them. As children grow, they go through many different stages and change or learn differently through each one. At INK, there is something for children of all ages to do or learn; and most of all plenty of other children for them to play and interact with. In a school environment, children do not have the opportunity to play all day so it is important to expose them to a variety of learning environments and some being where a kid can be a kid. I witnessed this at INK and was thrilled to see how effective it was. INK is a wonderful place for children of all ages and from observing this site I learned a lot about children interaction and what works best.

In this assignment I am going to describe a child observation that I have done in a nursery for twenty minutes in a play setting. I will explain the strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observation through the key developmental milestones based in Mary Sheridan (2005) check-list and provide a theoretical explanation to support the naturalistic observation.

The importance of using observations while conferencing with the parents of young children is to inform and discuss the developmental overview of the child by sharing information about their child growth and development. Observation can be unique within the contents that focus on the child's interests, behavior, strengths, weaknesses, skills, needs and abilities by providing details, example of the child's work and anecdotes within the child's portfolio. Also using the observation, will help me as a teacher to seek feedback and assistance from the family to help the child to improve me achieve their developmental milestones. I can help parents understand significance of their child's portfolio and observations by giving them concrete examples

Observations are important tool to Social Work practise as it lets you identify any milestones that haven’t been achieved that the child at the specific age should be meeting. It also lets the observer know if the child is exceeding their milestones and is developing faster than their peers (Fawcett, 2009, pg. 3, 2nd Ed). It’s always essential to observe as a social worker as you do many assessments and observing helps you stand back and reflect on how far the child has come from the first observation you did and report on it. This could be to do progression with language development or fine motor skills. Fawcett (1996, pg.3) states that observing is important because it helps ‘notice what might otherwise be overlooked’.

The child I chose to write about for this assignment is two year old Danjuma from Wayne, Ohio. He is the youngest of three children and attends an Early Head Start Program two days a week. The child’s parents have jobs; when the mother is working her sister takes care of Danjuma. The family has financial problems but don’t qualify for any type of public assistance.

School is something from day one that our parents and society are preparing us for. You go through elementary school learning the basics for school. Moving onto high school where you then in the four years there must make one of the biggest decisions of your life: what do I want to be when I grow up. Once you choose what you are going to be when you grow up you apply to university and college. One thing though that you are not told when your younger is the expenses of school and saving money towards it. You are always told that you need school and you have to go to school. But never how expensive school really is in Canada especially in Ontario. As easy as it sounds to get an education to get a good job, it really is not like that there