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In her Exchange article, “Recognizing the Essentials of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (Exchange, March, 1993), Marjorie Kostelnik addressed some of the misconceptions about the application of developmentally appropriate practice in real-life classroom situations. She defined the following as the “essence of DAP:

1. Developmentally appropriate means taking into account everything we know about how children develop and learn and matching that to the content and strategies planned for them in early childhood programs.

2. Developmentally appropriate means treating children as individuals, not as a cohort group.

3. Developmentally appropriate means treating children with respect -- recognizing children's changing capabilities and having faith in their capacity to develop and learn.

In other words, we must first think about what children are like and then create activities, routines, and expectations that accommodate and complement those characteristics. In addition, we must know more than a few descriptive facts about a child, such as age and gender, to design appropriate programs. We have to look at children within the context of their family, culture, community, past experience, and current circumstances to create age-appropriate, as well as individually-appropriate, living and learning environments. Finally, we must recognize the unique ways in which children are children, not simply miniature adults. Experiences and expectations planned for children should reflect the notion that early childhood is a time of life qualitatively different from the later school years and adulthood.

Although each of us may interpret these basic tenets in slightly different ways, they provide a common foundation for defining high quality early childhood programs. Such programs are ones in which children of all abilities, ages, races, cultures, creeds, socio-economic, and family lifestyle backgrounds feel lovable, valuable, and competent.

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