Essay Sample on Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Introduction

Developmentally appropriate practice is a form of teaching approach which teachers use to develop young children. In most cases, it is used to encourage optimal learning and development of young children. It can also be defined as a way in which one uses personal knowledge about child development to design a program that fits children development age and stage. The whole process requires the teacher to meet children wherever they are as an individual or as a group and give support to every child (DeBey, 2010). The purpose of this is to overcome their learning challenges and also to achieve their learning goals. It is necessary for teachers to understand their children well and also ensure they support every child to meet personal learning objectives.

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Intentional teachers support DAP principles and teaching strategies in several ways (Carta, 2017). It is the responsibility of the intentional teacher to struggle and seek out and create a good plan that best provides or avail appropriate opportunities that can support the well-being of young children. It is necessary for intentional teachers to use most current, effective approaches practices when teaching young people. These kind of practices are the one associated with best practices or quality learning practices. As a result, intentional teachers support DAP through this kind of practices.

It is the responsibility of the teacher to understand the capability and potential of every child as this is can help them overcome their learning challenges and also help them achieve their learning goals (Carta, 2017). The teacher should not wait for children to expose their weaknesses and strengths to them but ensure they reach out to these children at their point of learning needs. The teachers must also ensure that their teaching practices correspond to different groups of children ages and their development status. They should not offer teaching practices that do not match the age of the certain group of children. The teachers are also expected to attune to children as unique people and act as responsive as possible to the cultural and social norms of every child. This will give children an opportunity to learn in a good learning environment that promotes their personal development.

The fact that DAP is not meant to make learning easy for children but it is meant to ensure that learning goals and experiences are appropriate for the learning of young people. It is more necessary when such practices are more challenging to the extent that they induce development progress and interest of children (DeBey, 2010). Intentional teachers should ensure that they embrace practices that are suited for child development only but not for those that do not make learning easy for children. They require challenging practices that are capable of inducing progress and interest of children only.

The teachers should use learning practices which are based on their knowledge but not assumptions. They should use their knowledge of how the children under them can learn and achieve appropriate personal development (Carta, 2017). The practices used should be continuous and the teachers must always embrace any change that can promote learning and personal development of children. Teachers must embrace continuity because such practices are meant to provide guidance to the tradition of quality learning of young children and ensure there is change because it requires incorporation of emerging research, proficiency and science that support children learning.

The understanding of the age and stage of personal development of every child is essential. This information relies heavily on research and support teachers in making a decision on the kind of experiences suits learning need of each child. The information about every child is important to intentional teachers. It provides the teachers with the opportunity to identify the kind of teaching practice that they can use to teach and care for an individual child but not as a group. The teachers are also required to observe children during their play or when they are interacting with physical surrounding and with fellow children (Carta, 2017). This is important in helping teachers learn and acknowledge the interest, potential and development progress of every child. Intentional teachers are expected to make an attempts to develop a personal relationship with the children's families and make sure they understand their family values, norms, expectations and other issues that shape their behaviors while at home and the community at large. This kind of facts helps teachers offer relevant or meaningful knowledge to children. As a result, teachers are able to provide every child with the correct mix of challenges that stimulate their learning. Such skills ensure that teachers only use programs that promote and improve learning of every child.

For intentional to further promote learning strategies, it is important for teachers to develop a caring community of learners (DeBey, 2010). This ensures that learners learn under a condition similar to that of the general community. These conditions promote the well-being of learners and teachers. Under this condition, children are able to strengthen their learning interest which eventually improves the learning process. In addition, such an environment allows children and teachers to establish a stronger social relationship which is important in promoting the overall functioning of the whole group.

References

DeBey, M. (2010). Dual language learning and developmentally appropriate practices. PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e584752012-032

Carta, J. J. (2017). Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Critical Analysis as Applied to Young Children with Disabilities. Focus on Exceptional Children, 27(8). doi:10.17161/fec.v27i8.6848