Developmentally Appropriate Practice In Research

A supportive learning environment should be purposeful and task orientated, where the tutor emphasises the need to progress steadily. This can be done by starting lessons promptly, creating a smooth flow to the lesson, involving pupils and monitoring their progression and organisation. A positive effort should be made to ensure pupils have or build on self-respect and esteem by setting realistic opportunities for success and helpful support and encouragement whenever difficulties arise.

Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) involves educators making informed decisions grounded in research to challenge and motivate children to meet attainable goals (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). In the video, Morning Circle at Preschool, children appear eager to participate in the morning routine. DAP was noted, as well as some actions that are in contrast to DAP.

Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) is a method of teaching that is based on the research about how young children grow and learn and includes standards for high quality care and education for young children. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) established these guidelines more than 20 years ago. Authors Gordon and Browne state, “The DAP approach stresses the need for activity-based learning environments and is based on what we know about children through years of child development research and what we observe of their interests, abilities, and needs” (40). The three core components of DAP are: 1) what is known about child development and learning, 2) what is known about each child, and 3) what is known about social and cultural contexts in which children learn. A DAP classroom is a busy classroom where students are engaged and interacting physically with objects and persons. This classroom is full of materials, activities, and direct interactions that lead the student into active learning. The observations for this report were conducted at the Laredo Community College Camilo Prada Early Child Development Center in the blue classroom.

1. A developmentally appropriate practice to help and 18 month old to understand be safe rule is presenting a puppet show. For example I would present 3 puppets, One teacher puppet and two toddler puppets. One of the toddler puppets would demonstrate running back and forth in the classroom. The teacher puppet would then explain to the two children the basic ground rules of being safe. Teacher puppet would also mention to the toddler puppets that running in the classroom can give us ouchies. And now the toddler puppets would have a better understanding of being safe.

In order to respond this question, we must first review the history of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and Early Childhood Education (ECE). Although ECE has been around since the creation of kindergarten in the 1800’s, the decade of the 1980’s was an important period for ECE. “By the 1980’s, meta-analysis of the well-designed US projects offered compelling evidence on the positive outcomes of [early childhood education and intervention]” (Woodhead, 2007). Therefore, there was much pressure to improve the state of education, including ECE. “The decade of the 1980’s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, school structure, and accountability measures” (S. Bredekamp, R.A. Knuth, L.G. Kunesh, and D.D. Shulman, 1992). At this time, there was an increasing concern about the quality of early childhood education for the influx number of families that needed it. This led the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to “begin planning a national voluntary accreditation system for early childhood programs”(NAEYC, 2014). With this planning came a need for a more specific description with regards to accreditation guidelines. Therefore, NAEYC issued a formal statement defining DAP.

Several issues are discussed in the NAEYC position statement about Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). The section points out three main areas that policymakers have addressed because they realize how important these areas are to an early elementary child.

The Seven Basic Beliefs about Guidance help teacher’s to establish effective guidance practices by identifying effective guidance strategies that are developmentally and culturally appropriate, based on respectful and supportive relationship with children. The three dimensions Positive Climate, Teacher Sensitivity and Regard for Student Perspective of the Emotional Support Domain relate to The Seven Basic Beliefs about Guidance because they both support teachers by providing specific teaching practices to help children develop warm, supportive relationships, experience enjoyment and excitement about learning” (Pianta et al., 2008. p.2). In the chart below I will discuss the correlation between The Seven Basic Beliefs about Guidance and the Emotional Support Domain.

Slide 17: I think slide seventeen is important because it talks about developmentally appropriate practices, which we will need to be very familiar with as future teachers. It is important that we know what is developmentally appropriate for our students. We wouldn’t want to teach our students something that was at too high or low

To have the students learn that negative words are unnecessary and that positive words should be used instead of negative words.

At this school and in Our Classroom Cuddle Bug 4 we encourage Positive Guidance. Positive guidance is where you refrain from punishment and instead you teach and use positive teaching strategies to modify and change the behavior while they grow and mature over time. Some teaching strategies include;

Using Developmentally Appropriate Practice with my clients and families because “I know, understand and use a wide array of developmentally appropriate approaches, instructional strategies, and tools to connect” (Morrison, 2015, p.52) to connect with the special needs children I work with. Their physical age may be one thing, but their cognitive age is severally younger than that, in which case I need to go back to basics with a child who may be a teenager.

Our program’s philosophy on positive child guidance is to discipline instead of punishing children for accidents or mistakes they make. With the help of our committed staff, we can provide a positive atmosphere that will allow the children to feel loved and accepted to help build their self-esteem. Our program will offer the children with choices, but there will also be reasonable, and developmentally appropriate limits. The educators will model positive behaviours that will teach the children to problem solve and build self-control in a healthy, and safe way.

Through analysing the findings above, I believe that there are two salient aspects that should be reinforced and strengthened in order to best support the development of Annika. Firstly, it is paramount that Annika continues to learn through play in order to discover and build a strong sense of self (identity). Additionally, Annika needs to be supported and exposed to various scenarios that will assist her to make decisions and direct her own play without forcing or dictating to others (abilities). Support strategies for these two aspects will now be discussed.

Effectively, the qualitative research employed by Lareau provided direct and personal insight into the intimate intricacies of family life. Qualitative research grants investigators freedom to tailor study methods such as, targeted group selection, social topics, observational locations, documentation techniques, and level of observer involvement; permitting varied facets of consequential focus to be fully ascertained (Chapter 10 Field Research: A Qualitative Technique). Lareau chose her target group of twelve families, and together with her research assistants elected to observe the participants in a multitude of settings (Lareau 2011). The level of involvement varied from that of complete observationist to complete participant (Chapter 10 Field Research: A Qualitative Technique) (Lareau 2011). Adeptly, through naturalistic observation social capital is illuminated, assessed, and recorded lending deepened understanding to veiled ideals, principles, and standards (Theam 2013). Devoting time to observe interfamilial interactions, as well as individual and collective familial exchanges in institutional settings, afforded discovery of parenting styles and philosophies and their effects on child development (Lareau 2011). Markedly, few, if any, alternative research methods have the ability to uncover such comprehensive information, highlighting functions and concerns of social framework (Chapter 10 Field Research: A Qualitative Technique).

The Role of Methodology in Developmental Research Developmental psychology may be defined as a branch psychology devoted to understanding all changes that human beings, experience throughout the lifespan (Berk. E. L 2003). Developmental psychology focuses hugely on development in childhood, as major changes occur in childhood, it is the scientific study of ‘how we grow and develop’, (Davenport 1994). Developmental psychology aims to understand the important aspects of cognition, socialisation, emotional development, and personality development through childhood to adulthood. ‘Researchers are captivated by and want to understand the fascinating, complex, and often surprising arrays of behaviours