DEVELOPMENTALLY-APPROPRIATE

PRACTICE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

FOR K-12

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice – a
framework for teaching that is grounded
on research on child development and
learning which seeks to promote optimal
learning and development
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Developmental appropriateness has
three important distinct yet interrelated
aspects: age appropriateness, individual
appropriateness and cultural
appropriateness

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O
1. APPROPRIATENESS
AGE

This refers to the fact that there are

recognizable predictable sequences of
growth and change in human development
from infancy up to adulthood. These
predictable changes take place in terms of all
aspects of human development – physical,
emotional, psychosocial, cognitive.
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  “Teachers must be knowledgeable about what is
known about child development and learning --
knowledge of age-related human characteristics that
permits general predictions within an age range
about what activities, materials, interactions, or
experiences will be safe, healthy, interesting,
achievable, and also challenging to children.”
(Bredekam and Copple, Editors, Developmentally Appropriate Practice)
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INDIVIDUAL APPROPRIATENESS

This is based on the recognition of the child

as a unique person with an individual pattern
and pace of growth. The child is an individual
with his or her own personality, learning style
and family and cultural background.

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Teachers need to know about the
strengths, interests, and needs of each
child in her class to be able to adapt and
be responsive to variations in rate of
development

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 Cultural Appropriateness

 This is based on the recognition that children live

within a social and cultural context and that
their needs need to be addressed in relation
to this.
 Teachers need to provide learning experiences
are meaningful, relevant, and respectful of her
students and their families.

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 Principles of Child
Development and Learning
that Inform
Developmentally-
appropriate Practice
(from the Position Statement of NAEYC)
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Developmentally appropriate programs
are guided by basic principles about how
children learn. The way teachers teach
must be compatible with the way children
learn.
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Domains of children's development
-- physical, social, emotional, and
cognitive -- are closely related.
Development in one domain
influences and is influenced by
development in other domains.

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 DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

 Child development has a physical, social, emotional and

cognitive dimension:
 Physical Dimension – the ability to move and coordinate
 Intellectual/Cognitive Dimension – the ability to think and
learn
 Social Dimension –the ability to relate to others
 Emotional Dimension- the ability to develop positive
concept for self and others
 Moral Dimension – the ability to distinguish and choose
between right and wrong

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Development occurs in a relatively
orderly sequence, with later
abilities, skills, and knowledge
building on those already acquired.

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Development proceeds at varying
rates from child to child as well as
unevenly within different areas of
each child's functioning.

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Early experiences have both
cumulative and delayed effects on
individual children's development;
optimal periods exist for certain
types of development and
learning.

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Play is an important vehicle for
children's social, emotional, and
cognitive development, as well as a
reflection of their development.

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Development and learning result
from interaction of biological
maturation and the environment,
which includes both the physical
and social worlds that children live
in.
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Development advances when children
have opportunities to practice newly
acquired skills as well as when they
experience a challenge just beyond the
level of their present mastery.

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Children demonstrate different
modes of knowing and learning
and different ways of representing
what they know.
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Children develop and learn best in the
context of a community where they
are safe and valued, their physical needs
are met, and they feel psychologically
secure.

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 GUIDELINES FOR
DEVELOPMENTALLY
APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

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 Create a caring community of learners.
 Teach to enhance development and learning.
 Plan appropriate curriculum.
 Assess children’s development and learning.
 Develop reciprocal relationships with
families.
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1.IN A CARING COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS,
EVERYONE FEELS…..

 I belong here.
 I am safe.
 I matter, and everyone else in the group
matters too.
 When we have problems we can work them
out.
 Together we can do great things.
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Developmentally-appropriate practice occur
within a context of RELATIONSHIPS
between adults and children, among
children,among teachers and between
teachers and families.

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1.GUIDANCE IN A CARING COMMUNITY…

 How we interact with children shapes how

they approach others, how they feel about
themselves, and how they develop and learn.
Our expectations for children’s behavior
affects them also.

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CELEBRATE children and what they can do.
Take pride in their achievements. Give each
one a chance to discover their strengths and
talents. Remember that everyone can be
SMART in different ways.

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 Provide opportunities for children to play and work
together, talk with one another, problem-solve
together, make plans and execute them together.
 Each child has strengths and interests that
contribute to the overall functioning of the group
 Interacting with children in SMALL GROUPS
provides a context for children to operate on the
edge of their developing capacities.
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 The learning environment must be physically and
emotionally safe for children.
 Children feel relaxed, safe and comfortable rather
than disengaged, frightened, worried or stressed.
 Children experience an organized environments
that is time and space are well-managed. The
environment is DYNAMIC and CHANGING but
PREDICTABLE and COMPREHENSIBLE from a
child’s point of view.
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2.TEACH TO ENHANCE DEVELOPMENT
AND LEARNING

How teachers will teach will greatly affect

how children will learn, how much they will
learn, how they will view learning and
themselves as learners

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ADULT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS -Teachers

respect,value, and accept children and
treat them with DIGNITY

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 SCAFFOLDING - enable children to perform a
task beyond the level of independent functioning

 INCREMENTAL CHALLENGES

 BELIEVE IN CHILDREN
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LEARNING EXPERIENCES

 PLAYFUL AND HANDS-ON experiences with

materials, the natural world and engaging, caring
adults balance between self-initiated and adult
guided
 PRACTICE - 6 times within 30 days
 NOVELTY
 CHOICE

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 WHAT CHILDREN NEED

 Rich variety of experiences, projects, materials,

problems and ideas to explore and investigate that
are worthy of children’s attention
 Opportunities to make meaningful choices and time
to explore through active involvement

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 When children’s learning experiences are not suited
to their learning needs, it can cause them great
harm. It can leave children feeling INADEQUATE,
ANXIOUS AND CONFUSED.

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3.CONSTRUCT AN APPROPRIATE CURRICULUM

 Developmentally appropriate curriculum provides for all

areas of a child's development: physical, emotional, social,
linguistic, aesthetic, and cognitive.

 Choose curriculum strategies that do not demand much of

the wrong thing and too little of the right thing
 Whole group and teacher-led instruction should not be the
dominant teaching strategy

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ASSESSING CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT AND
LEARNING

Developmentally appropriate programs assess in

order to…
 Monitor children’s development and learning.
 Guide our planning and decision making.
 Identify children who might benefit from special
services or supports.
 Report and communicate with others.

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 FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
 In order to make developmentally appropriate
decisions for children you must know them as
individuals and as members of their families and
their communities.
 Parents must be viewed as partners in supporting
children’s development. Strengthening home-school
partnerships must be an important feature of an
educational program. Good relationships with
families communicates respect and team effort.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR K-12

 Serious investment in capacity building activities that will

include continuing study of child development and learning
in addition to curriculum development.
Note: Inappropriate approaches to early childhood
education especially when combined with ineffective
teaching and inappropriate curriculum in the primary
grades will be even more damaging than not having
access to preschool education.

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 Set up resource schools or schools with “model K-3
classes” that demonstrate best practices in early
childhood and primary education (K-3) e.g.
developmentally-appropriate, culturally and
contextually- appropriate as well as effective
program management and processes of supervision
by school heads and division educational supervisors.

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Systematic effort to improve the primary
school curriculum (Grades One to Three) to
ensure that appropriate scope, coverage,
materials and teaching approaches and
methods are truly effective for children from
ages 6 to 8.
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 Increase physical activity
 Although primary age children gain control over their bodies and
can sit through longer periods, they are far from mature physically
and need to be action
 Physical action is essential to refine developing skills; expressing
newly acquired physical power and control enhances self-
confidence
 Physical activity is vital for cognitive growth. Children need
physical action to help them grasp more abstract concepts like
place value and fractions
 Children need to engage in active rather than passive activities

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 Provide more opportunities for cooperative small group
projects and activities.
These include activities that provide:
rich content for conversations
opportunities for shared exploration, investigation and
discovery
opportunities for planning, negotiating, problem-
solving, evaluating

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 Provide a wide range of concrete materials – from open-
ended ones like blocks,playdough, sand, construction toys to
more structured ones like puzzles, board and card games
which children can explore, investigate and think about

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 Use positive approaches to help children learn appropriate
behavior through:
 Employing positive discipline anchored on basic respect for
children
 and consideration of children’s developmental characteristics
 Role-playing of problem situations
 Involving children in establishing and enforcing few basic rules
necessary for harmonious group life
 More constructive ways of resolving conflicts

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 “Curriculum and teaching methods must enable
children to acquire not only skills and knowledge
but also the disposition or inclination to use this” .

 Essential dispositions towards learning and school:

curiosity, humor, helpfulness, persistence

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 Revisit and redefine all national policies,
Department orders and memos and school level
interpretations of such policies in order to update
and reconcile with effective and developmentally-
appropriate practice.
Ex. Numerical grades for Kindergarten

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“The principal goal of education is to create people who a
capable of new things... people who are creative, inventiv
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and discoverers.” --Jean Piaget

RESOURCES

 Copple,Carol and Bredekamp,Sue; Developmentally

Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, NAEYC

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