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Developmentally Appropriate Practice

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice, also referred to as DAP, is an approach to teaching that has been studied and proven to be the most optimal and effective way that children learn. Developmentally Appropriate Practice focuses on three main aspects: child development, individually appropriate, and culturally appropriate. It is important for educators to have knowledge of where children should relatively be developmentally, but keep in mind each child is different, and be culturally aware of children’s families’ values to help bridge the gap between home and school.
Today’s early childhood classrooms are being pushed in the direction to ensure that children are learning through developmentally appropriate practices, rather than the drill …show more content…

Educators are not teaching to the interest of the children in the classroom, but rather teaching to the test. The learning in the classroom is instructive and conducive to the hands-on constructivism approach. Standardized testing is used to compare results from child to child, while they may …show more content…

The sensorimotor is considered birth through 24 months, preoperational is considered toddlerhood through age seven, the concrete operational period is age 7-12, and formal operational is adolescence through adulthood. He also believed that children were more independent and developed stronger with self-centered and focused, planned activities. Vygotsky believed that cognitive development is continuous and that children are social beings and that their development is directed through social interactions. Even though Piaget and Vygotsky hold different views concerning developmental phycology the use of both theories in classrooms is advantageous, students will have more opportunities to learn through play in the classroom. Developmentally Appropriate Practice is seen with focused activities, as well as social learning on the child’s own. By incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories into teaching strategies in early childhood classrooms, student learning is likely to increase. While Piaget and Vygotsky 's theories offer insight into Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the classroom, other theorists such as Dewey and Bandura offer even more supporting evidence for DAP. John Dewey was a pragmatist. Pragmatists believe that reality must be experienced, and so forth believed that human beings learn through a

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