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Developmentally Appropriate Practice Essay

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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. The curriculum must be based on the knowledge of each child's development and learning abilities. Developmentally appropriate practice focuses on expanding learning experiences, expectations …show more content…

It is important to help each child to reach reasonably attainable goals in the classroom. Children desperately need to have free-play time included in their daily routines because it promotes language usage, cognition, and social competence.

There are many important benefits of DAP. When used properly, DAP creates a learning system that is individually appropriate for each child's needs. By recording data daily, we can determine the child's interests and developmental strengths and weaknesses. Another benefit of DAP is that it helps to reduce learning gaps while increasing achievement rates for all children.

Assessing children effectively requires an organized environment. It is important to have physical learning material to engage children. The assessment of children is based upon using anecdotal notes and observation. Also, by making assessments about children, we can then use that information to influence future teaching methods and decision making processes.

It is important to always meet a childs needs wherever they need to be met in order to reduce learning gaps. It helps to pinpoint what a child already understands and build off of those interests. Also, in order to be successful as a teacher, one must plan curriculum and adapt teaching strategies

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