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Developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) describe as approach to education that focuses on

the child as a developing human being and life long learner. This approach recognized the child as

an active participant in the learning process; a participant who constructs meaning and knowledge

through interaction with others, friends and family, materials and environment. The teacher in an

active facilitator who helps the child make meaning of the various activities and interaction

encountered throughout the day.

Developmentally appropriate practices require teachers to make decisions in the classroom by

combining their knowledge of child development with an understanding of the individual child to

achieve and meaningful outcomes. The term developmentally appropriate practices was Statement

popularized by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) with the

1987 publication of its Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early

Childhood Programs. NAEYC developed the position statement to support its early childhood

program accreditation system, which acknowledges and endorses programs offering appropriate

early childhood practices.

With this system, early childhood educators can have a clear sense of appropriate early childhood

practices. This way they might not use inappropriate developmental and academic expectations to

prepare children for public school kindergarten programs.

At the same time NAEYC addressed the issue of appropriate practices in early childhood

education, landmark decisions were made in education and civil rights legislation. The federal

Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the Pennsylvania Early Intervention Services System

Act (Act 212) entitle eligible young children (birth through the age of beginners) and their families

to early interventation services and programs. A key component of this legislation calls for

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inclusion of children who have disabilities in natural environments; that is, in community activities

and programs with their peers who are not disabled. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA,

P.L. 102-336) requires all early childhood programs be prepared to serve all children. This trend

toward inclusion of children who have disabilities into all early childhood settings, including

home- and center- based child care programs, nursery schools, play groups, Head start, preschools

and kindergartens, requires partnerships between early childhood education and early childhood

special education.