Position Statement Web

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Copyright 2009 by the National Association or the Education o Young Children

The purpose o this position statement is to pro-

mote excellence in early childhood education by

providing a ramework or best practice. Grounded

both in the research on child development andlearning and in the knowledge base regarding

educational eectiveness, the ramework outlines

practice that promotes young childrens optimal

learning and development. Since its rst adoption

in 1986, this ramework has been known as devel-

opmentally appropriate practice.1

The proessions responsibility to promote

quality in the care and education o young children

compels us to revisit regularly the validity and cur-

rency o our core knowledge and positions, such

as this one on issues o practice. Does the position

need modication in light o a changed context? Isthere new knowledge to inorm the statement? Are

there aspects o the existing statement that have

given rise to misunderstandings and misconcep-

tions that need correcting?

Over the several years spent in developing

this revision, NAEYC invited the comment o early

childhood educators with experience and exper-

tise rom inancy to the primary grades, including

Developmentally Appropriate Practicein Early Childhood Programs ServingChildren from Birth through Age 8

Note: Throughout this statement, the terms teacher, practitioner,and educatorare variously used to reer to those working in theearly childhood eld. The word teacheris always intended toreer to any adult responsible or the direct care and educationo a group o children in any early childhood setting. Included arenot only classroom teachers but also inant/toddler caregivers,amily child care providers, and specialists in other disciplineswho ulll the role o teacher. In more instances, the termprac-titioners is intended to also include a programs administrators.

Educators is intended to also include college and universityaculty and other teacher trainers.

Adopted 2009

Position stAtement

a late 2006 convening o respected leaders in the

eld. The result o this broad gathering o views is

this updated position statement, which addresses

the current context and the relevant knowledgebase or developmentally appropriate practice and

seeks to convey the nature o such practice clearly

and useully.

This statement is intended to complement

NAEYCs other position statements on practice,

which includeEarly Learning Standards andEarly

Childhood Curriculum, Assessment, and Program

Evaluation, as well as the Code o Ethical Conduct

andNAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and

Accreditation Criteria.2

A position statement o the National Asssociation or the Education o Young Children


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Since the 1996 version o this position statement,

the landscape o early childhood education in the

United States has changed signicantly and a num-

ber o issues have grown in importance. Shortage

o good care or children in the highly vulnerableinant and toddler years has become critical.3 Issues

o home language and culture, second language

learning, and school culture have increased with

the steady growth in the number o immigrant ami-

lies and children in our population.4 In addition, ar

more children with special needs (including those

with disabilities, those at risk or disabilities, and

those with challenging behaviors) participate in typ-

ical early childhood settings today than in the past.5

As or teachers, the nation continues to struggle

to develop and maintain a qualied teaching orce.6

This diculty is especially acute in the under-unded early childhood arena, especially the child

care sector, which is losing well prepared teaching

sta and administrators at an alarming rate.7

Looking orward, demographic trends predict

a modest growth in the number o young children

in the population, signicant increases in the

demand or early care and education, dramatic

increases in childrens cultural and linguistic diver-

sity, and unless conditions change, a greater share

o children living in poverty. Among these, the

biggest single child-specic demographic change

in the United States over the next 20 years is pre-dicted to be an increase in children whose home

language is not English.8

Also signicant is that policy makers and the

public are ar more aware o the importance o

the early childhood years in shaping childrens

utures. Based on this widespread recognition and

the context o early childhood education today, it

was decided this statement would highlight three

challenges: reducing learning gaps and increasing

the achievement o all children; creating improved,

better connected education or preschool and

elementary children; and recognizing teacherknowledge and decision making as vital to educa-

tional eectiveness.

Reducing learning gaps and increasingthe achievement of all children

All amilies, educators, and the larger society

hope that children will achieve in school and go

on to lead satisying and productive lives. But

that optimistic uture is not equally likely or all o

the nations schoolchildren. Most disturbing, low-

income and Arican American and Hispanic stu-

dents lag signicantly behind their peers on stan-

dardized comparisons o academic achievementthroughout the school years, and they experience

more diculties while in the school setting.9

Behind these disparities in school-related

perormance lie dramatic dierences in childrens

early experiences and access to good programs

and schools. Oten there is also a mismatch

between the school culture and childrens cul-

tural backgrounds.10 A prime dierence in chil-

drens early experience is in their exposure to

language, which is undamental in literacy devel-

opment and indeed in all areas o thinking and

learning. On average, children growing up in low-income amilies have dramatically less rich experi-

ence with language in their homes than do middle-

class children:11 They hear ar ewer words and are

engaged in ewer extended conversations. By 36

months o age, substantial socioeconomic dispari-

ties already exist in vocabulary knowledge,12 to

name one area.

Children rom amilies living in poverty or in

households in which parent education is low typi-

cally enter school with lower levels o oundational

skills, such as those in language, reading, and

mathematics.13

On starting kindergarten, childrenin the lowest socioeconomic group have average

cognitive scores that are 60 percent below those

o the most afuent group. Explained largely by

socioeconomic dierences among ethnic groups,

average math achievement is 21 percent lower or

Arican American children than or white children

and 19 percent lower or Hispanic children than

or non-Hispanic white children.14 Moreover, due to

deep-seated equity issues present in communities

and schools, such early achievement gaps tend to

increase rather than diminish over time.15

Concerns over the persistence o achieve-ment gaps between subgroups are part o a larger

concern about lagging student achievement in the

United States and its impact on American eco-

nomic competitiveness in an increasingly global

economy. In comparisons with students o other

industrialized countries, or example, Americas

students have not consistently ared well on tests

o educational achievement.16

Critical issues in the current context


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It is these worries that drive the powerul

standards/accountability movement. Among the

movements most ar-reaching actions has been

the 2001 passing o No Child Let Behind (NCLB),

which made it national policy to hold schools

accountable or eliminating the persistent gaps in

achievement between dierent groups o children.With the aim o ensuring educational equity, the

law requires the reporting o scores disaggregated

by student group; that is, reported separately or

the economically disadvantaged, major racial and

ethnic minorities, special education recipients,

and English language learners.17 By requiring the

reporting o achievement by student group and

requiring all groups to make achievement gains

annually, NCLB seeks to make schools accountable

or teaching alltheir students eectively.

Whether NCLB and similar accountability

mandates can deliver that result is hotly debated,and many critics argue that the mandates have

unintended negative consequences or children,

teachers, and schools, including narrowing the

curriculum and testing too much and in the wrong

ways. Yet the majority o Americans support the

movements stated goals,18 among them that all

children should be achieving at high levels.19 This

public supportor the goals, i not the methods

can be viewed as a demand that educators do

something to improve student achievement and

close the gaps that all agree are damaging many

childrens uture prospects and wasting theirpotential.

Learning standards and accountability policies

have impinged directly on public education rom

grade K and up, and they are o growing relevance

to preschool education, as well. As o 2007, more

than three-quarters o the states had some sort

o early learning standardsthat is, standards or

the years beore kindergartenand the remaining

states had begun developing them.20 Head Start

has put in place a child outcomes ramework,

which identies learning expectations in eight

domains.21

National reports and public policy state-ments have supported the creation o standards-

based curriculum as part o a broader eort to

build childrens school readiness by improving

teaching and learning in the early years.22 For its

part, NAEYC has position statements dening the

eatures o high-quality early learning standards,

curriculum, and assessment.23

So we must close existing learning gaps and

enable all children to succeed at higher levelsbut

how? While this question is not a new one, in the

current context it is the ocus o increased atten-

tion. As later outlined in Applying New Knowledge

to Critical Issues, accumulating evidence and

innovations in practice now provide guidance asto the knowledge and abilities that teachers must

work especially hard to oster in young children, as

well as inormation on how teachers can do so.

Creating improved, better connectededucation for preschool and elementarychildren

For many years, preschool education and ele-

mentary educationeach with its own unding

sources, inrastructure, values, and traditions

have remained largely separate. In act, the educa-tion establishment typically has not thought o

preschool as a ull-fedged part o American public

education. Among the chie reasons or this view

is that preschool is neither universally unded by

the public nor mandatory.24 Moreover, preschool

programs exist within a patchwork quilt o spon-

sorship and delivery systems and widely varying

teacher credentials. Many programs came into

being primarily to oer child care or parents who

worked. In recent years, however, preschools edu-

cational purpose and potential have been increas-

ingly recognized, and this recognition contributesto the blurring o the preschool-elementary bound-

ary. The two spheres now have substantial reasons

to strive or greater continuity and collaboration.

One impetus is that mandated accountability

requirements, particularly third grade testing,

exert pressures on schools and teachers at K2,25

who in turn look to teachers o younger children to

help prepare students to demonstrate the required

prociencies later. A related actor is the growth o

state-unded prekindergarten, located in schools

or other community settings, which collectively

serves more than a million 3- and 4-year-olds.Millions more children are in Head Start programs

and child care programs that meet state prekin-

dergarten requirements and receive state preK

dollars. Head Start, serving more than 900,000

children nationwide, is now required to coordinate

with the public schools at the state level.26 Title I

dollars support preschool education and services

or some 300,000 children. Nationally, about 35


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percent o all 4-year-olds are in publicly supported

prekindergarten programs.27

For its part, the world o early care and edu-

cation stands to gain in some respects rom a

closer relationship with the K12 system. Given

the shortage o aordable, high-quality programs

or children under 5 and the low compensationor those sta, advocates see potential benets to

having more 4-year-olds, and perhaps even 3-year-

olds, receive services in publicly unded schooling.

Proponents also hope that a closer relationship

between early-years education and the elementary

grades would lead to enhanced alignment and each

spheres learning rom the other,28 thus resulting

in greater continuity and coherence across the

preK3 span.

At the same time, however, preschool educa-

tors have some ears about the prospect o the

K12 system absorbing or radically reshapingeducation or 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, especially

at a time when pressures in public schooling are

intense and oten run counter to the needs o

young children. Many early childhood educators

are already quite concerned about the current

climate o increased high-stakes testing adversely

aecting children in grades K3, and they ear

extension o these eects to even younger chil-

dren. Even learning standards, though generally

supported in principle in the early childhood

world,29 are sometimes questioned in practice

because they can have negative eects.Early learning standards are still relatively

new, having been mandated by Good Start, Grow

Smart in 2002 or the domains o language, literacy,

and mathematics. While some states have taken a

airly comprehensive approach across the domains

o learning and development, others ocus heavily

on the mandated areas, particularly literacy. When

state standards are not comprehensive, the curric-

ulum driven by those standards is less likely to be

so, and any alignment will likely address only those

ew curriculum areas identied in the standards.

Such narrowing o curriculum scope is oneshortcoming that can characterize a set o stan-

dards; there can be other deciencies, too. To be

most benecial or children, standards need to be

not only comprehensive but also address what is

important or children to know and be able to do;

be aligned across developmental stages and age/

grade levels; and be consistent with how children

develop and learn. Unortunately, many state stan-

dards ocus on supercial learning objectives, at

times underestimating young childrens compe-

tence and at other times requiring understandings

and tasks that young children cannot really grasp

until they are older.30 There is also growing con-

cern that most assessments o childrens knowl-

edge are exclusively in English, thereby missingimportant knowledge a child may have but cannot

express in English.31

Alignment is desirable, indeed critical, or

standards to be eective. Yet eective alignment

consists o more than simpliying or a younger

age group the standards appropriate or older

children. Rather than relying on such downward

mapping, developers o early learning standards

should base them on what we know rom research

and practice about children rom a variety o

backgrounds at a given stage/age and about the

processes, sequences, variations, and long-termconsequences o early learning and development.32

As or state-to-state alignment, the current sit-

uation is chaotic. Although discussion about estab-

lishing some kind o national standards ramework

is gaining momentum, there is no common set o

standards at present. Consequently, publishers

competing in the marketplace try to develop cur-

riculum and textbooks that address the standards

o all the states. Then teachers eel compelled to

cover this large array o topics, teaching each only

briefy and oten supercially. When such cur-

riculum and materials are in use, children movethrough the grades encountering a given topic in

grade ater gradebut only shallowly each time

rather than getting depth and ocus on a smaller

number o key learning goals and being able to

master these beore moving on.33

Standards overload is overwhelming to teach-

ers and children alike and can lead to potentially

problematic teaching practices. At the preschool

and K3 levels particularly, practices o concern

include excessive lecturing to the whole group,

ragmented teaching o discrete objectives, and

insistence that teachers ollow rigid, tightly pacedschedules. There is also concern that schools are

curtailing valuable experiences such as problem

solving, rich play, collaboration with peers, oppor-

tunities or emotional and social development,

outdoor/physical activity, and the arts. In the

high-pressure classroom, children are less likely

to develop a love o learning and a sense o their

own competence and ability to make choices, and


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they miss much o the joy and expansive learning

o childhood.34

Educators across the whole preschool-primary

spectrum have perspectives and strengths to bring

to a closer collaboration and ongoing dialogue. The

point o bringing the two worlds together is notor

children to learn primary grade skills at an earlierage; it is or their teachers to take the rst steps

together to ensure that young children develop and

learn, to be able to acquire such skills and under-

standings as they progress in school.

The growing knowledge base can shed light on

what an exchanging o best practices might look

like,35 as noted later in Applying New Knowledge

to Critical Issues. Through increased communi-

cation and collaboration, both worlds can learn

much that can contribute to improving the edu-

cational experiences o allyoung children and to

making those experiences more coherent.

Recognizing teacher knowledge anddecision making as vital to educationaleffectiveness

The standards/accountability movement has led

to states and other stakeholders spelling out what

children should know and be able to do at vari-

ous grade levels. Swit improvement in student

achievement across all student subgroups has

been demanded. Under that mandate, many policy

makers and administrators understandably gravi-tate toward tools and strategies intended to expe-

dite the education enterprise, including teacher

proong curriculum, lessons, and schedules. As

a result, in some states and districts, teachers in

publicly unded early childhood settings report

that they are allowed ar less scope in classroom

decision making than they were in the past,36 in

some cases getting little to no say in the selection

o curriculum and assessments or even in their use

o classroom time.

How much directing and scaolding o teach-

ers work is helpul, and how much teacher auton-omy is necessary to provide the best teaching and

learning or children? The answer undoubtedly

varies with dierences among administrators and

teachers themselves and the contexts in which

they work.

A great many school administrators (elemen-

tary principals, superintendents, district sta) lack

a background in early childhood education, and

their limited knowledge o young childrens devel-

opment and learning means they are not always

aware o what is and is not good practice with chil-

dren at that age. Teachers who have studied how

young children learn and develop and eective

ways o teaching them are more likely to have thisspecialized knowledge. Moreover, it is the teacher

who is in the classroom every day with children.

So it is the teacher(not administrators or curricu-

lum specialists) who is in the best position to know

the particular children in that classroomtheir

interests and experiences, what they excel in and

what they struggle with, what they are eager and

ready to learn. Without this particular knowledge,

determining what is best or those childrens learn-

ing, as a group and individually, is impossible.

But it must be said that many teachers

themselves lack the current knowledge and skillsneeded to provide high-quality care and education

to young children, at least in some components o

the curriculum. Many actors contribute, includ-

ing the lack o a standard entry-level credential,

wide variation in program settings and auspices,

low compensation, and high turnover.37 With work-

orce parameters such as these, is it reasonable to

expect that every teacher in a classroom today is

capable o ully meeting the challenges o provid-

ing high-quality early care and education?

Expert decision making lies at the heart o

eective teaching. The acts o teaching and learn-ing are too complex and individual to prescribe a

teachers every move in advance. Children benet

most rom teachers who have the skills, knowledge,

and judgment to make good decisions and are given

the opportunity to use them.

Recognizing that eective teachers are good

decision makers, however, does not mean that

they should be expected to make all decisions in

isolation. Teachers are not well served when they

are stranded without the resources, tools, and

supports necessary to make sound instructional

decisions, and o course childrens learning suersas well.

Ideally, well conceived standards or learning

goals (as described previously) are in place to

guide local schools and programs in choosing or

developing comprehensive, appropriate curricu-

lum. The curriculum ramework is a starting place,

then teachers can use their expertise to make

adaptations as needed to optimize the t with the


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children. Further, such curricular guidance gives

teachers some direction in providing the materials,

learning experiences, and teaching strategies that

promote learning goals most eectively, allowing

them to ocus on instructional decision making

without having to generate the entire curriculum

themselves.Even well qualied teachers nd it challenging

to create rom scratch a comprehensive curricu-

lum that addresses all the required standards and

important learning goals, as well as designing the

assessment methods and learning experiences.

This daunting task is even less realistic or those

teachers with minimal preparation. Hence, there is

value in providing teachers a validated curriculum

ramework and related proessional development,

as long as teachers have the opportunity to make

individual adaptations or the diversity o children

they teach.38

That good teaching requires expert decision

making means that teachers need solid proes-

sional preparation, as well as ongoing proessionaldevelopment and regular opportunities to work

collaboratively.39 Since this level o preparation

and training does not yet exist or many in the

early childhood workorce, the question o how

best to equip and support inadequately prepared

teachers needs serious investigation. Research on

critical actors in good teaching, as described in

the next section o this statement, has powerul

lessons to oer.

Applying new knowledge to critical issues

Fortunately, a continually expanding early child-

hood knowledge base enables the eld to rene,

redirect, or conrm understandings o best prac-

tice. The whole o the present position statement

refects resh evidence o recent years and the

perspectives and priorities emerging rom these

ndings. This section looks within that mass o

new knowledge to a ew lines o research speci-

cally helpul in addressing the three critical issues

or the eld identied in this position statement.

First, new ndings hold promise or reduc-

ing learning gaps and barriers and increasing the

achievement o all children. More is now known

about which early social and emotional, cogni-

tive, physical, and academic competencies enable

young children to develop and learn to their ull

potential. Such ndings are useul in determining

curriculum content and sequences or all children.

But they are especially important in helping those

children most likely to begin school with lower

levels o the oundational skills needed to succeed

and most likely to all arther behind with time

among whom children o color, children growing

up in poverty, and English language learners are

overrepresented. Another key aspect is ensur-

ing that children who have learning diculties

or disabilities receive the early intervention ser-

vices they need to learn and unction well in the

classroom.

Research continues to conrm the greater e-

cacy o early actionand in some cases, intensive

interventionas compared with remediation and

other too little or too late approaches. Changing

young childrens experiences can substantially

aect their development and learning, especially

when intervention starts early in lie and is not an

isolated action but a broad-gauged set o strate-

gies.40 For example, Early Head Start, a comprehen-

sive two-generational program or children under

age 3 and their amilies, has been shown to pro-

mote cognitive, language, and social and emotional

development.41 The success o Early Head Start

illustrates that high-quality services or inants

and toddlersar too rare in the United States

todayhave a long-lasting and positive impact

on childrens development, learning abilities, and

capacity to regulate their emotions.42

Although high-quality preschool programs

benet children (particularly low-income children)

more than mediocre or poor programs do,43 ewer

children living in poverty get to attend high-quality

preschool programs than do children rom higher-

income households.44 Findings on the impact o

teaching quality in the early grades show a similar

pattern.45 In addition to this relationship o overall

program and school quality to later school suc-

cess, research has identied a number o specic

predictors o later achievement. Some o these

predictors lie in language/literacy and mathemat-

ics; others are dimensions o social and emotional

competence and cognitive unctioning related to

how children are in school.


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In the language and literacy domain, vocabu-

lary knowledge and other aspects o oral language

are particularly important predictors o childrens

reading comprehension.46 Even when children

with limited vocabulary manage to acquire basic

decoding skills, they still oten encounter diculty

around grade 3 or 4 when they begin needing toread more advanced text in various subjects.47

Their vocabulary decit impedes comprehension

and thus their acquisition o knowledge neces-

sary to succeed across the curriculum.48 Clearly,

children who hear little or no English in the home

would have even more initial diculty with com-

prehension in English.

To shrink the achievement gap, then, early

childhood programs need to start early with pro-

active vocabulary development to bring young

children whose vocabulary and oral language

development is laggingwhatever the causescloser to the developmental trajectory typical o

children rom educated, afuent amilies.49 For

these children to gain the vocabulary and the

advanced linguistic structures they will need or

elementary grade reading, their teachers need to

engage them in language interactions throughout

the day, including reading to them in small groups

and talking with them about the stories. Especially

rich in linguistic payo is extended discourse; that

is, conversation between child and adult on a given

topic sustained over many exchanges.50

Compelling evidence has shown that youngchildrens alphabet knowledge and phonological

awareness are signicant predictors o their later

prociency in reading and writing.51 A decade

ago, many preschool teachers did not perceive it

as their roleor even see it as appropriateto

launch young children on early steps toward lit-

eracy, including amiliarizing them with the world

o print and the sounds o language. The early

childhood proession now recognizes that gaining

literacy oundations is an important acet o chil-

drens experience beore kindergarten,52 although

the early literacy component still needs substantialimprovement in many classrooms.

Like the teaching o early literacy, mathemat-

ics education in the early childhood years is

key to increasing all childrens school readiness

and to closing the achievement gap.53 Within the

mathematics arena, preschoolers knowledge o

numbers and their sequence, or example, strongly

predicts not only math learning but also literacy

skills.54 Yet mathematics typically gets very little

attention beore kindergarten.55 One reason is that

early childhood teachers themselves oten lack the

skills and condence to substantially and eec-

tively increase their attention to mathematics in

the curriculum.56

Mathematics and literacy concepts andskillsand, indeed, robust content across the

curriculumcan be taught to young children

in ways that are engaging and developmentally

appropriate.57 It can be, but too oten isnt; to

achieve such improvements will require consider-

able strengthening o early-years curriculum and

teaching. Failing to meet this challenge to improve

all childrens readiness and achievement will per-

petuate the inequities o achievement gaps and the

low perormance o the U.S. student population as

a whole.

Besides specic predictors in areas such asmathematics and literacy, another major thread in

recent research is that childrens social and emo-

tional competencies, as well as some capabilities

that cut across social and emotional and cognitive

unctioning, predict their classroom unctioning.

O course, childrens social, emotional, and behav-

ioral adjustment is important in its own right, both

in and out o the classroom. But it now appears

that some variables in these domains also relate

to and predict school success. For example, stud-

ies have linked emotional competence to both

enhanced cognitive perormance and academicachievement.58 A number o actors in the emo-

tional and social domain, such as independence,

responsibility, sel-regulation, and cooperation,

predict how well children make the transition to

school and how they are in the early grades.59

A particularly powerul variable is sel-regu-

lation, which the early childhood eld has long

emphasized as a prime developmental goal or the

early years.60 Mounting research evidence conrms

this importance, indicating that sel-regulation in

young children predicts their later unctioning in

areas such as problem solving, planning, ocusedattention, and metacognition, and thus contributes

to their success as learners.61 Moreover, help-

ing children rom dicult lie circumstances to

develop strong sel-regulation has proven to be

both easible and infuential in preparing them to

succeed in school.62

The gains children make as a result o high-

quality programs or children under 6 have been


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ound to diminish in a ew years i children do not

continue to experience high-quality education in

grades K3.63 This consistent nding makes clear

the importance o improving quality and conti-

nuity all along the birth8 continuum. As previ-

ously described, critical to developing a better

connected, more coherent preschool-elementaryramework is aligning standards, curriculum, and

assessment practices within that continuum.64

(Ideally, such a ramework would extend to inant

and toddler care as well.)

Further, educators and researchers are begin-

ning to consider how to unite the most important

and eective elements o preschool education with

those o K3.65 In this search or the best o both

worlds, policy makers and educators can look to

the expanding body o knowledge on the aspects o

early learning and development that enable children

to do well in school and the practices that shouldbe more prevalent across the entire preK3 span.66

First, research evidence on the predictors o

successul outcomes or children (highlighted ear-

lier) suggests a number o learning goals and expe-

riences that in some orm ought to be incorporated

across preK3. These include, or example, robust

curriculum content; careul attention to known

learning sequences (in literacy, mathematics, sci-

ence, physical education, and other domains); and

emphasis on developing childrens sel-regulation,

engagement, and ocused attention. Also proven

to yield positive results or children are practicesamiliar to early childhood educators, such as

relationship-based teaching and learning; partner-

ing with amilies; adapting teaching or children

rom dierent backgrounds and or individual chil-

dren; active, meaningul, and connected learning;67

and smaller class sizes.68 Evidence o the benets

o these practices suggests that they should be

extended more widely into the elementary grades.

A second source o knowledge about eec-

tively connecting education across the preschool-

grade 3 span comes rom educational innovations

now being piloted. Schools that encompass thesegrades and thoughtully consider how to increase

continuity, alignment, and coherence are emerging

around the country, and some are being studied by

researchers.69

Expansion o P16 or P20 commissions

around the country, although not yet giving much

attention to prekindergarten,70 provides one

vehicle or the conversations about continuity that

need to take place. While there are entrenched

practices and structures separating preschool

and K3 education, the current orces noted here

provide considerable impetus and opportunity

to achieve stronger, more coordinated preK3

education.

The importance o teachers to high-qualityearly education, indeed to all o education, cannot

be overemphasized. Although wise administrative

and curricular decisions made upstream rom the

individual teacher signicantly aect what goes

on in the classroom, they are ar rom ensuring

childrens learning. Research indicates that the

most powerul infuences on whether and what

children learn occur in the teachers interactions

with them, in the real-time decisions the teacher

makes throughout the day.71 Thus, no educational

strategy that ails to recognize the centrality o the

teachers decisions and actions can be successul.It is the teachers classroom plans and orga-

nization, sensitivity and responsiveness to all

the children, and moment-to-moment interac-

tions with them that have the greatest impact on

childrens development and learning.72 The way

teachers design learning experiences, how they

engage children and respond to them, how they

adapt their teaching and interactions to childrens

background, the eedback they givethese matter

greatly in childrens learning. And none can be ully

determined in advance and laid out in a curriculum

product or set o lesson plans that every teacheris to ollow without deviation. Teachers will always

have moment-to-moment decisions to make.

To make these decisions with well-grounded

intentionality, teachers need to have knowledge

about child development and learning in general,

about the individual children in their classrooms,

and about the sequences in which a domains spe-

cic concepts and skills are learned. Teachers also

need to have at the ready a well developed reper-

toire o teaching strategies to employ or dierent

purposes.73

Directly ollowing rom this rst lesson is asecond: the imperative to make developing teacher

quality and eectiveness a top priority. This invest-

ment must include excellent preservice prepara-

tion, ongoing proessional development, and on-

the-ground support and mentoring. For example,

good curriculum resources are helpul when they

speciy the key skills and concepts or children

and provide a degree o teaching guidance, but


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9

without overscripting. New or inadequately trained

teachers and those encountering a new curriculum

or set o standards may be particularly in need o

such scaolding.74

Another valuable orm o scaolding or

teachers is interaction with mentors and peers.

Meeting the needs o diverse learners and helpingall children to develop and learn require signicant

time or teachers to collaborate with colleagues,

discuss and observe best practices, and partici-

pate in meaningul proessional development. Most

teachers, including novice teachers, get too little

time or such activities. While providing time and

opportunity or teachers to do these things can be

very challenging or administrators, it is critical.75

To act on this second lessonthe impera-

tive to make teaching quality and eectiveness

a top prioritymeans changing what happens

in the classroom. But it also means establishingpolicies and committing public unds at the ed-

eral, state, and local levels, as described in Policy

Considerations, the concluding section o this

position statement.

Core considerations in developmentally appropriate practiceEvery day, early childhood practitioners make a

great many decisions, both long-term and short-

term. As they do so, they need to keep in mind

the identied goals or childrens learning and

development and be intentional in helping children

achieve these goals. The core o developmentally

appropriate practice lies in this intentionality, in

the knowledge that practitioners consider when

they are making decisions, and in their always aim-

ing or goals that are both challenging and achiev-

able or children.

Knowledge to consider in making

decisionsIn all aspects o their work with children, early

childhood practitioners must consider these three

areas o knowledge:

1. What is known about child development

and learningreerring to knowledge o

age-related characteristics that permits gen-

eral predictions about what experiences are

likely to best promote childrens learning

and development.

Teachers who are knowledgeable about child

development and learning are able to make broadpredictions about what children o a particular age

group typically will be like, what they typically will

and will not be capable o, and what strategies and

approaches will most likely promote their optimal

learning and development. With this knowledge,

teachers can make preliminary decisions with some

condence about environment, materials, interac-

tions, and activities. At the same time, their knowl-

edge also tells them that specic groups o children

and the individual children in any group always will

be the same in some ways but dierent in others.

2. What is known about each child as an

individualreerring to what practitioners

learn about each child that has implications

or how best to adapt and be responsive to

that individual variation.

To be eective, teachers must get to know

each child in the group well. They do this using a

variety o methodssuch as observation, clinical

interview (an extended dialogue in which the adult

seeks to discern the childs concepts or strategies),

examination o childrens work, individual child

assessments, and talking with amilies. From theinormation and insights gathered, teachers make

plans and adjustments to promote each childs

individual development and learning as ully as

possible. Developmental variation among children

is the norm, and any one childs progress also will

vary across domains and disciplines, contexts, and

time. Children dier in many other respects, too

including in their strengths, interests, and preer-

ences; personalities and approaches to learning;

and knowledge, skills, and abilities based on prior

experiences. Children may also have special learn-

ing needs; sometimes these have been diagnosedand sometimes they have not. Among the actors

that teachers need to consider as they seek to opti-

mize a childs school adjustment and learning are

circumstances such as living in poverty or home-

lessness, having to move requently, and other

challenging situations. Responding to each child

as an individual is undamental to developmentally

appropriate practice.


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3. What is known about the social and

cultural contexts in which children live

reerring to the values, expectations, and

behavioral and linguistic conventions that

shape childrens lives at home and in their

communities that practitioners must strive to

understand in order to ensure that learningexperiences in the program or school are

meaningul, relevant, and respectul or each

child and amily.

As we grow up in a amily and in a broader

social and cultural community, we all come to

certain understandings about what our group

considers appropriate, values, expects, admires.

We learn this through direct teaching rom our

parents and other important people in our lives

and through observing those around us. Among

these understandings, we absorb rules about

behaviorssuch as how to show respect, how tointeract with people we know well and those we

have just met, how to regard time and personal

space, how to dress, and countless other attitudes

and actions. We typically absorb these rules very

early and very deeply, so we live by them with little

conscious thought. When young children are in a

group setting outside the home, what makes sense

to them, how they use language to interact, and

how they experience this new world depend on

the social and cultural contexts to which they are

accustomed. A skilled teacher takes such contex-

tual actors into account, along with the childrensages and their individual dierences, in shaping all

aspects o the learning environment.

To recap this decision-making process: An eec-

tive teacher begins by thinking about what children

o the age and developmental status represented

in the group are typically like. This knowledge

provides a general idea o the activities, routines,

interactions, and curriculum that will be eective

with that group. The teacher also must consider

each child, including looking at the child as an

individual and within the context o amily, com-

munity, culture, linguistic norms, social group, past

experience (including learning and behavior), and

current circumstances. Only then can the teachersee children as they are to make decisions that are

developmentally appropriate or each o them.

Challenging andachievable goals

Meeting children where they are is essential, but

no good teacher simply leaves them there. Keeping

in mind desired goals and what is known about the

children as a group and individually, the teacher

plans experiences to promote childrens learning

and development.

Learning and development are most likely tooccur when new experiences build on what a child

already knows and is able to do and when those

learning experiences also entail the child stretch-

ing a reasonable amount in acquiring new skills,

abilities, or knowledge. Ater the child reaches that

new level o mastery in skill or understanding, the

teacher refects on what goals should come next;

and the cycle continues, advancing childrens

learning in a developmentally appropriate way.

Clearly, such eective teaching does not hap-

pen by chance. A hallmark o developmentally

appropriate teaching is intentionality. Good teach-ers are intentional in everything they dosetting

up the classroom, planning curriculum, making

use o various teaching strategies, assessing chil-

dren, interacting with them, and working with their

amilies. Intentional teachers are purposeul and

thoughtul about the actions they take, and they

direct their teaching toward the goals the program

is trying to help children reach.

Principles of child development and learning that inform practice

Developmentally appropriate practice as dened

in this position statement is not based on what

we think might be true or what we want to believe

about young children. Developmentally appropri-

ate practice is inormed by what we know rom

theory and literature about how children develop

and learn. In particular, a review o that literature

yields a number o well supported generalizations,

or principles.

No linear listing o principlesincluding the

one belowcan do justice to the complexity o the

phenomenon that is child development and learn-

ing. While the list is comprehensive, it certainly is

not all-inclusive. Each principle describes an indi-

vidually contributing actor; but just as all domains

o development and learning are interrelated, so

too do the principles interconnect. For example,

the infuence o cultural dierences and individual


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11

dierences, each highlighted in a separate princi-

ple below, cuts across all the other principles. That

is, the implication o any principle oten diers as a

unction o cultural or individual givens.

A complete discussion o the knowledge base

that inorms developmentally appropriate practice

is clearly beyond the scope o this document. Eacho the principles rests on a very extensive research

base that is only partially reerenced here.76

All the limitations o such a list not withstand-

ing, collectively the principles that ollow orm

a solid basis or decision makingor decisions

at all levels about how best to meet the needs

o young children in general, and or decisions

by teachers, programs, and amilies about the

strengths and needs o individual children, with all

their variations in prior experiences, abilities and

talents, home language and English prociency,

personalities and temperaments, and communityand cultural backgrounds.

All the domains o development and

learningphysical, social and emotional,

and cognitiveare important, and they are

closely interrelated. Childrens develop-

ment and learning in one domain infuence

and are infuenced by what takes place in

other domains.

Children are thinking, moving, eeling, and

interacting human beings. To teach them well

involves considering and ostering their develop-

ment and learning in all domains.77 Because this

ull spectrum o development and learning is

undamental to childrens lives and to their uture

participation as members o society, early care and

education must address all the domains.

Further, changes in one domain oten acilitate

or limit development in other areas.78 For example,

when children begin to crawl or walk, they gain

new possibilities or exploring the world, and their

mobility aects both their cognitive development

and sense o autonomy. Likewise, childrens lan-

guage development infuences their ability to par-

ticipate in social interaction with adults and other

children; such interactions, in turn, support their

urther language development.79 A growing body

o work demonstrates the relationship between

emotional and social actors and childrens aca-

demic competence80 and thus the importance o all

these areas in educating young children. In brie,

the knowledge base documents the importance o

a comprehensive curriculum and the interrelated-

ness o the developmental domains in childrens

well-being and success.

Many aspects o childrens learning and

development ollow well documented

sequences, with later abilities, skills, and

knowledge building on those already

acquired.

Human development research suggests that

relatively stable, predictable sequences o growth

and change occur in children during the rst nine

years o lie.81 Predictable changes occur in all

domains o development, although the ways that

these changes are maniested and the meaning

attached to them may vary widely in dierent cul-

tural and linguistic contexts.82 Knowledge o how

children within a given age span typically develop

and learn provides a general ramework to guide

teachers in preparing the learning environment,

considering curriculum, designing learning experi-

ences, and teaching and interacting with children.

Also important or educators to know are the

sequences in which children gain specic con-

cepts, skills, and abilities, building on prior devel-

opment and learning. In mathematics, or example,

childrens learning to count serves as an important

oundation or their acquiring an understanding

o numerals.83 Familiarity with known learning

sequences should inorm curriculum development

and teaching practice.

Development and learning proceed atvarying rates rom child to child, as well

as at uneven rates across dierent areas o

a childs individual unctioning.

Individual variation has at least two dimen-

sions: the inevitable variability around the

typical or normative course o development and

the uniqueness o each child as an individual.

Childrens development ollows individual pat-

terns and timing; children also vary in tempera-

ment, personality, and aptitudes, as well as in what

they learn in their amily and within the social

and cultural context or contexts that shape theirexperience.

All children have their own strengths, needs,

and interests. Given the enormous variation among

children o the same chronological age, a childs

age is only a crude index o developmental abili-

ties and interests. For children who have special

learning needs or abilities, additional eorts and

resources may be necessary to optimize their

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development and learning. The same is true when

childrens prior experiences do not give them the

knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a spe-

cic learning environment.

Given this normal range o variation, decisions

about curriculum, teaching, and interactions with

children should be as individualized as possible.Rigid expectations o group norms do not refect

what is known about real dierences in develop-

ment and learning. At the same time, having high

expectations or all children is essential, as is using

the strategies and providing the resources neces-

sary to help them meet these expectations.

Development and learning result rom a

dynamic and continuous interaction o

biological maturation and experience.

Development is the result o the interplay

between the growing, changing child and the

childs experiences in the social and physical

worlds.84 For example, a childs genetic makeup

may predict healthy growth, but inadequate nutri-

tion in the early years o lie will keep this potential

rom being ullled. Conversely, the impact o an

organic condition on a young childs learning and

development can be minimized through system-

atic, individualized intervention. Likewise, a childs

innate temperamentsuch as a predisposition to

be either wary or outgoingshapes and is shaped

by how other children and adults interact with

that child. In light o the power o biology and the

eects o childrens prior experiences, it is impor-

tant or early childhood educators to maintain high

expectations and employ all their knowledge, inge-

nuity, and persistence to nd ways to help every

child succeed.

Early experiences have proound eects,

both cumulative and delayed, on a childs

development and learning; and optimal

periods exist or certain types o develop-

ment and learning to occur.

Childrens early experiences, whether positive

or negative, are cumulative. For example, a childssocial experiences with other children in the pre-

school years may help him develop social skills

and condence that enable him or her to make

riends in subsequent years, and these experiences

urther enhance the childs social competence

and academic achievement. Conversely, children

who ail to develop minimal social skills and thus

suer neglect or rejection rom peers are at risk

or later outcomes such as school dropout, delin-

quency, and mental health problems.85 Similarly,

early stimulation promotes brain development and

the orming o neural connections, which in turn

enable urther development and learning. But i

the very young child does not get this stimulation,

he is less able to benet rom subsequent learningopportunities, and a cumulative disadvantage is

set in motion.

Intervention and support are more successul

the earlier a problem is addressed. Prevention o

reading diculties, or example, is ar less dicult

and expensive than remediation.86 In addition, the

literature shows that some aspects o develop-

ment occur most eciently at certain points in the

lie span. The rst three years o lie, or example,

appear to be an optimal period or oral language

development.87 Ensuring that children get the

needed environmental inputs and supports or aparticular kind o learning and development at its

prime time is always the most reliable route to

desired results.

Development proceeds toward greater

complexity, sel-regulation, and symbolic

or representational capacities.

A pervasive characteristic o development is

that childrens unctioning becomes increasingly

complexin language, social interaction, physical

movement, problem solving, and virtually every

other domain. Increased organization and memory

capacity o the developing brain make it possible

with age or children to combine simple routines

into more complex strategies.88 The younger the

child, the more she or he tends to think concretely

and in the here and now. Yet in some ways, young

childrens thinking can be quite abstract. For exam-

ple, preschoolers know that adding always makes

more and subtracting makes less, and they are able

to grasp abstract ideas about counting objects

such as the one-to-one principle.89

All young humans must negotiate the transi-

tion rom total dependence on others at birth to

competence and internal control, including learn-

ing to regulate their emotions, behaviors, and

attention. For young inants, there are tasks such

as learning to soothe themselves rom arousal to

a settled state. A ew years later, sel-regulation

means developing the capacity to manage strong

emotions and keep ones attention ocused.

Throughout the early years, adults play signicant

roles in helping children learn to sel-regulate.

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13

Caregivers are important in helping very young

children to modulate their emotional arousal; or

example, soothing babies and then helping them

learn to soothe themselves.90 In the preschool

years, teachers can help children develop sel-

regulation by scaolding high-level dramatic play,91

helping children learn to express their emotions,and engaging children in planning and decision

making.92

During the early years o lie, children move

rom sensory or behavioral responses to symbolic

or representational knowledge.93 For example,

young children are able to navigate their homes

and other amiliar settings by recall and sensory

cues, but later they come to understand and can

use abstractions such as letand rightor read a

map o the house. It is around age 2 that children

begin to represent and reconstruct their experi-

ences and knowledge.94 For example, children mayuse one object to stand or another in play, such as

a block or a phone or a spatula or a guitar.95 Their

ability to use various modes and media to convey

their meaning increases in range and scope. By the

preschool years, these modes may include oral

language, gestures and body movement, visual arts

(drawing, painting, sculpting), construction, dra-

matic play, and writing. Their eorts to represent

their ideas and concepts in any o these modes

enhance the knowledge itsel.96

Children develop best when they have

secure, consistent relationships with

responsive adults and opportunities or

positive relationships with peers.

From the earliest years o lie, warm, nurturing

relationships with responsive adults are neces-

sary or many key areas o childrens development,

including empathy and cooperation, sel-regulation

and cultural socialization, language and communi-

cation, peer relationships, and identity ormation.97

When children and caring adults have the

opportunity to get to know each other well, they

learn to predict each others signals and behavior

and establish attunement and trust.98 The rst and

most important relationships are those a child

orms with parents or other primary caregivers.

Forming one or more such attachments sets the

stage or other relationships, as children move

into the wider world beyond their immediate

amily.99 Young children benet rom opportuni-

ties to develop ongoing, trusting relationships

with adults outside the amily and with other

children. Notably, positive teacher-child relation-

ships promote childrens learning and achieve-

ment, as well as social competence and emotional

development.100

Nurturing relationships are vital in ostering

high sel-esteem and a strong sense o sel-ecacy,

capacity in resolving interpersonal conficts coop-eratively, and the sociability to connect with oth-

ers and orm riendships. Further, by providing

positive models and the security and condence to

try new experiences and attempt new skills, such

relationships support childrens learning and the

acquisition o numerous capabilities.101

Development and learning occur in and

are infuenced by multiple social and cul-

tural contexts.

Understanding childrens development

requires viewing each child within the sociocul-

tural context o that childs amily, educational set-

ting, and community, as well as within the broader

society.102 These various contexts are interrelated,

and all powerully infuence the developing child.

For example, even a child in a loving, support-

ive amily within a strong, healthy community is

aected by the biases o the larger society, such as

racism or sexism, and may show some eects o its

negative stereotyping and discrimination.

Here culture is intended to reer to the custom-

ary belies and patterns o behavior, both explicit

and implicit, that are inculcated by the societyor

by a social, religious, or ethnic group within the

societyin its members. Even though culture is

discussed oten in the context o diversity and

immigrant or minority groups, all o us are mem-

bers o cultures and are powerully infuenced by

them. Every culture structures and interprets chil-

drens behavior and development in its own way.103

Early childhood teachers need to understand the

infuence o sociocultural contexts and amily

circumstances on learning, recognize childrens

developing competencies, and be amiliar with the

variety o ways that children may demonstrate

their developmental achievements.104 Most impor-

tantly, educators need to be sensitive to how their

own cultural experience shapes their perspective

and to realize that multiple perspectives, not just

their own, must be considered in decisions about

childrens development and learning.

As children grow up, they need to learn to

unction well in the society and in the increasingly

global economy and to move comortably among

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10

groups o people rom backgrounds both similar

and dissimilar to their own. Fortunately, children

are capable o learning to unction in more than

one social or cultural context and to make behav-

ioral or linguistic shits as they move rom one con-

text to another, although this complex ability does

not occur overnight and requires adult support.Acquiring a new language or the ability to operate

in a new culture can and should be an additive pro-

cess, rather than causing the displacement o the

childs rst language and culture.105 For example,

immigrant children are able to develop English

prociency without having to give up their home

language, and it is important that they retain their

fuency in the language o their amily and com-

munity. Likewise, children who speak only English

benet rom learning another language and can do

so without sacricing their English prociency.106

Always mentally active in seeking to

understand the world around them, chil-

dren learn in a variety o ways; a wide

range o teaching strategies and interac-

tions are eective in supporting all these

kinds o learning.

Several prominent theories and bodies o

research view cognitive development rom the

constructivist, interactive perspective.107 That is,

young children construct their knowledge and

understanding o the world in the course o their

own experiences, as well as rom teachers, am-

ily members, peers and older children, and rom

books and other media. They learn rom the con-

crete (e.g., manipulatives); they also apparently

are capable o and interested in abstract ideas, to a

ar greater degree than was previously believed.108

Children take all this input and work out their own

understandings and hypotheses about the world.

They try these out through interactions with

adults and other children, physical manipulation,

play, and their own thought processesobserving

what happens, refecting on their ndings, imagin-

ing possibilities, asking questions, and ormulating

answers. When children make knowledge their own

in these ways, their understanding is deeper and

they can better transer and apply their learning in

new contexts.109

Using multiple teaching strategies is important

in meeting childrens dierent learning needs. The

Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers report

concluded:

Good teachers acknowledge and encourage chil-

drens eorts, model and demonstrate, create

challenges and support children in extending their

capabilities, and provide specic directions or

instruction. All o these teaching strategies can be

used in the context o play and structured activi-

ties. Eective teachers also organize the classroom

environment and plan ways to pursue educationalgoals or each child as opportunities arise in child-

initiated activities and in activities planned and

initiated by the teacher.110

Thus, children benet when teachers have at

their disposal a wide range o teaching strategies

and rom these teachers select the best strategy to

use in a situation, depending on the learning goal,

specic context, and needs o individual children

at that moment, including children who may need

much more support than others even in explora-

tion and play.111

Play is an important vehicle or devel-oping sel-regulation as well as or pro-

moting language, cognition, and social

competence.

Children o all ages love to play, and it gives

them opportunities to develop physical compe-

tence and enjoyment o the outdoors, understand

and make sense o their world, interact with

others, express and control emotions, develop

their symbolic and problem-solving abilities, and

practice emerging skills. Research shows the links

between play and oundational capacities such as

memory, sel-regulation, oral language abilities,social skills, and success in school.112

Children engage in various kinds o play, such

as physical play, object play, pretend or dramatic

play, constructive play, and games with rules.

Observed in all young animals, play apparently

serves important physical, mental, emotional, and

social unctions or humans and other species, and

each kind o play has its own benets and charac-

teristics. From inancy, children act on the world

around them or the pleasure o seeing what hap-

pens; or example, repeatedly dropping a spoon

on the foor or pulling the cats tail. At around age2, children begin to demonstrate symbolic use o

objectsor instance, picking up a shell and pre-

tending to drink as rom a cupat least when they

have had opportunities to observe others engaging

in such make-believe behavior.113

From such beginnings, children begin to

engage in more mature orms o dramatic play, in

which by the age o 35 they may act out specic

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15

1211

roles, interact with one another in their roles, and

plan how the play will go. Such play is infuential

in developing sel-regulation, as children are highly

motivated to stick to the roles and rules o the

play, and thus grow in the ability to inhibit their

impulses, act in coordination with others, and

make plans.114 High-level dramatic play producesdocumented cognitive, social, and emotional ben-

ets.115 However, with children spending more time

in adult-directed activities and media use, orms o

child play characterized by imagination and rich

social interactions seem to be declining.116 Active

scaolding o imaginative play is needed in early

childhood settings i children are to develop the

sustained, mature dramatic play that contributes

signicantly to their sel-regulation and other

cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional ben-

ets. Adults can use proven methods to promote

childrens extended engagement in make-believeplay as well as in games with rules and other kinds

o high-level play.117 Rather than detracting rom

academic learning, play appears to support the

abilities that underlie such learning and thus to

promote school success.118

Development and learning advance when

children are challenged to achieve at a

level just beyond their current mastery,

and also when they have many opportuni-

ties to practice newly acquired skills.

Human beings, especially children, are moti-

vated to understand or do what is just beyond

their current understanding or mastery.119 Eective

teachers create a rich learning environment to acti-

vate that motivation, and they make use o strate-

gies to promote childrens undertaking and mas-

tering o new and progressively more advanced

challenges.120

In a task just beyond a childs independent

reach, adults and more-competent peers contrib-

ute signicantly to the childs development by

providing the support or assistance that allows the

child to succeed at that task. Once children make

this stretch to a new level in a supportive context,

they can go on to use the skill independently and

in a variety o contexts, laying the oundation or

the next challenge. Provision o such support,

oten called scaolding,121 is a key eature o eec-

tive teaching.122

At the same time, children need to be success-

ul in new tasks a signicant proportion o the time

in order or their motivation and persistence to be

maintained.123 Conronted by repeated ailure, most

children will simply stop trying. Repeated oppor-

tunity to practice and consolidate new skills and

concepts is also essential in order or children to

reach the threshold o mastery at which they can

go on to use this knowledge or skill and apply it in

new situations. Young children engage in a greatdeal o practice during play and in other child-

guided contexts.124

To set challenging, achievable goals or chil-

dren and to provide the right amount and type o

scaolding require knowledge o child develop-

ment and learning, including amiliarity with the

paths and sequences that children are known to

ollow in acquiring specic skills, concepts, and

abilities. This general knowledge, along with what

the teacher learns rom close observation and

probing o the individual childs thinking, is critical

to matching curriculum and teaching experiencesto that childs emerging competencies so as to be

challenging but not rustrating.

Childrens experiences shape their moti-

vation and approaches to learning, such

as persistence, initiative, and fexibility;

in turn, these dispositions and behaviors

aect their learning and development.

The National Education Goals Panel and its

Goal One Technical Planning Group identied

approaches to learning as one o ve aspects

o school readiness.125 Focused on the how rather

than the whato learning, approaches to learning

involve both childrens eelings about learning

(including their interest, pleasure, and motivation

to learn) and childrens behavior when learning

(including attention, persistence, fexibility, and

sel-regulation).126

Even in the early years, children dier in

their approaches to learning. These dierences

may infuence childrens school readiness and

school success. For example, children who start

school more eager to learn tend to do better in

reading and mathematics than do less motivated

children.127 Children with more positive learning

behaviors, such as initiative, attention, and per-

sistence, later develop stronger language skills.128

Moreover, children with greater sel-regulation and

other learning-related skills in kindergarten are

more skilled in reading and mathematics in later

grades.129

Although temperament and other inherent di-

erences may aect childrens approaches to learn-


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ing, their experiences in amilies and early educa-

tion programs have a major infuence. Programs

can implement evidence-based strategies that will

promote positive approaches to learning. These

strategies include strengthening relationships

with children; working with amilies; and selecting

eective curriculum, assessments, and teaching

methods.130

Guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice

Practice that promotes young childrens optimal

learning and developmentwhat this statement

terms developmentally appropriate practiceis

grounded both in the research on child develop-

ment and learning and in the knowledge base

regarding educational eectiveness in early care

and education.

But whether or not what actually happens

in the classroom is, in practice, developmentally

appropriate is the result o myriad decisions at all

levelsby policy makers, administrators, teachers,and amilies about the care and education o young

children. Eective early childhood proessionals

draw on all the principles o child development

and learning outlined, as well as the knowledge

base on eective practices, and they apply the

inormation in their practice.

The ollowing guidelines address decisions

that early childhood proessionals make in the ve

key (and interrelated) areas o practice: (1) creat-

ing a caring community o learners, (2) teaching to

enhance development and learning, (3) planning

curriculum to achieve important goals, (4) assess-ing childrens development and learning, and (5)

establishing reciprocal relationships with amilies.

1Creating a caring communityof learnersBecause early childhood settings tend to be chil-

drens rst communities outside the home, the

character o these communities is very infuential

in development. How children expect to be treated

and how they treat others is signicantly shaped

in the early childhood setting. In developmentallyappropriate practice, practitioners create and

oster a community o learners that supports

allchildren to develop and learn. The role o the

community is to provide a physical, emotional, and

cognitive environment conducive to that develop-

ment and learning. The oundation or the com-

munity is consistent, positive, caring relationships

between the adults and children, among children,

among teachers, and between teachers and ami-

lies. It is the responsibility o all members o the

learning community to consider and contribute to

one anothers well-being and learning.

To create a caring community o learners,

practitioners ensure that the ollowing occur or

children rom birth through the primary grades.

A. Each member o the community is valued

by the others. By observing and participat-

ing in the community, children learn about

themselves and their world and also how to

develop positive, constructive relationships

with other people. Each child has unique

strengths, interests, and perspectives to

contribute. Children learn to respect and

acknowledge dierences o all kinds and to

value each person.

B. Relationships are an important context

through which children develop and learn.

Children construct their understandings

about the world around them through inter-

actions with other members o the commu-nity (both adults and peers). Opportunities

to play together, collaborate on investiga-

tions and projects, and talk with peers and

adults enhance childrens development

and learning. Interacting in small groups

provides a context or children to extend

their thinking, build on one anothers ideas,

and cooperate to solve problems. (Also

see guideline 5, Establishing Reciprocal

Relationships with Families.)

C. Each member o the community respects

and is accountable to the others to behavein a way that is conducive to the learning

and well-being o all.

1. Teachers help children develop

responsibility and sel-regulation.

Recognizing that such abilities and

behaviors develop with experience and

time, teachers consider how to oster

such development in their interactions


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with each child and in their curriculum

planning.

2. Teachers are responsible at all times

or all children under their supervision,

monitoring, anticipating, preventing,

and redirecting behaviors not conducive

to learning or disrespectul o the com-

munity, as well as teaching prosocial

behaviors.

3. Teachers set clear and reasonable

limits on childrens behavior and apply

those limits consistently. Teachers help

children be accountable to themselves

and to others or their behavior. In the

case o preschool and older children,

teachers engage children in developing

their own community rules or behavior.

4. Teachers listen to and acknowledgechildrens eelings and rustrations,

respond with respect in ways that chil-

dren can understand, guide children

to resolve conficts, and model skills

that help children to solve their own

problems.

5. Teachers themselves demonstrate

high levels o responsibility and sel-

regulation in their interactions with other

adults (colleagues, amily members) and

with children.

D. Practitioners design and maintain the physi-cal environment to protect the health and

saety o the learning community members,

specically in support o young childrens

physiological needs or activity, sensory

stimulation, resh air, rest, and nourishment.

The daily schedule provides a balance o

rest and active movement. Outdoor experi-

ences, including opportunities to interact

with the natural world, are provided or

children o all ages.

E. Practitioners ensure members o the com-

munity eel psychologically sae. The overall

social and emotional climate is positive.

1. Interactions among community mem-

bers (administrators, teachers, amilies,

children), as well as the experiences

provided by teachers, leave participants

eeling secure, relaxed, and comortable

rather than disengaged, rightened, wor-

ried, or unduly stressed.

2. Teachers oster in children an enjoy-

ment o and engagement in learning.

3. Teachers ensure that the environment

is organized and the schedule ollows

an orderly routine that provides a stable

structure within which development

and learning can take place. While the

environments elements are dynamic and

changing, overall it still is predictable

and comprehensible rom a childs point

o view.

4. Children hear and see their home

language and culture refected in the

daily interactions and activities o the

classroom.

2Teaching to enhance development

and learningFrom birth, a childs relationships and interactions

with adults are critical determinants o develop-

ment and learning. At the same time, children are

active constructors o their own understanding

o the world around them; as such, they benet

rom initiating and regulating their own learn-

ing activities and rom interacting with peers.

Developmentally appropriate teaching practices

provide an optimal balance o adult-guided and

child-guided experiences. Adult-guidedexperience

proceeds primarily along the lines o the teachers

goals, but is also shaped by the childrens active

engagement; child-guidedexperience proceeds

primarily along the lines o childrens interests

and actions, with strategic teacher support.131 But

whether a learning experience is adult- or child-

guided, in developmentally appropriate practice it

is the teacher who takes responsibility or stimu-

lating, directing, and supporting childrens devel-

opment and learning by providing the experiences

that each child needs.

The ollowing describe teaching practices that

are developmentally appropriate or young chil-

dren rom birth through the primary grades.

A. Teachers are responsible or ostering the

caring learning community through their

teaching.

B. Teachers make it a priority to know each

child well, and also the people most signi-

cant in the childs lie.

1. Teachers establish positive, personal


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relationships with each child and with

each childs amily to better understand

that childs individual needs, interests,

and abilities and that amilys goals, val-

ues, expectations, and childrearing prac-

tices. (Also see guideline 5, Establishing

Reciprocal Relationships with Families.)Teachers talk with each child and amily

(with a community translator, i neces-

sary, or mutual understanding) and use

what they learn to adapt their actions

and planning.

2. Teachers continually gather inorma-

tion about children in a variety o ways

and monitor each childs learning and

development to make plans to help

children progress. (Also see guideline 4,

Assessing Childrens Development and

Learning.)

3. Teachers are alert to signs o undue

stress and traumatic events in each

childs lie and employ strategies to

reduce stress and support the develop-

ment o resilience.

C. Teachers take responsibility or knowing

what the desired goals or the program

are and how the programs curriculum is

intended to achieve those goals. They carry

out that curriculum through their teaching

in ways that are geared to young childrenin general and these children in particular.

Doing this includes ollowing the predict-

able sequences in which children acquire

specic concepts, skills, and abilities and

by building on prior experiences and under-

standings. (Also see guideline 3, Planning

Curriculum to Achieve Important Goals.)

D. Teachers plan or learning experiences that

eectively implement a comprehensive

curriculum so that children attain key goals

across the domains (physical, social, emo-

tional, cognitive) and across the disciplines(language literacy, including English acquisi-

tion, mathematics, social studies, science,

art, music, physical education, and health).

E. Teachers plan the environment, schedule,

and daily activities to promote each childs

learning and development.

1. Teachers arrange rsthand, meaningul

experiences that are intellectually and

creatively stimulating, invite exploration

and investigation, and engage childrens

active, sustained involvement. They do

this by providing a rich variety o materi-

als, challenges, and ideas that are worthy

o childrens attention.

2. Teachers present children with oppor-

tunities to make meaningul choices,

especially in child-choice activity peri-

ods. They assist and guide children who

are not yet able to enjoy and make good

use o such periods.

3. Teachers organize the daily and

weekly schedule to provide children

with extended blocks o time in which to

engage in sustained play, investigation,

exploration, and interaction (with adults

and peers).

4. Teachers provide experiences, materi-

als, and interactions to enable children

to engage in play that allows them to

stretch their boundaries to the ullest in

their imagination, language, interaction,

and sel-regulation as well as to practice

their newly acquired skills.

F. Teachers possess an extensive repertoire o

skills and strategies they are able to draw

on, and they know how and when to choose

among them, to eectively promote each

childs learning and development at thatmoment. Those skills include the ability to

adapt curriculum, activities, and materials

to ensure ull pa

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