"The best smell
is bread, the best savour salt, the best love that of children." - proverb
THE ESSENSE OF DAP
Our latest "Out of the Box Training Kit" is built around a March,
1993 Exchange article by Marjorie Kostelnik, "Recognizing
the Essentials of Developmentally Appropriate Practice." In this
article Marjorie describes these essentials...
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.
To order a copy of our newest "Out of the Box Training Kit" go to:
http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/0163
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