DAP-Age Appropriate Practices and Block Play

 Last week we touched on Developmentally Appropriate Practice and the different components that are involved. For the next few weeks, we will take a journey around a typical early childhood classroom.

Let's look at each learning center and discuss how they can be developmentally appropriate and how they relate to block play with young children.

Remember that we defined age appropriate as the difference between a child's chronological age and their developmental age. Say a child is 18 months old but is only developed to a mental age of a one year old. The way that you approach any activity with that child would be at the one year old level versus what you feel that child should be doing compared to a typically developing 18 month old.
So you may be asking yourself "What does this have to do with block play?"

Well, children approach a particular play toy such as blocks with a different view based on how they are developing and learning from peers, adults, and caregivers. For example a six month old will most likely mouth the block with no interest in stacking or building with it. They may also focus on only one block at a time due to their limited attention span.

Now looking at the typical development of an 18 month old who can most likely stack the blocks with no building ideas in mind. They will find enjoyment in the blocks tumbling over and then again re-stacking them. They also have a longer attention span so can sustain play with blocks for a longer period time.

It is not until a child is around 2 1/2 to 3 years of age that they will start to use the blocks to build with purpose. They may only make simple structures to use with cars however be sure to include other things with blocks to encourage further play.

To ensure that you are aware of developmentally appropriate stages you can refer to the following website:   National Association for the Education of Young Children and their policies on Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Additionally, you can refer to the milestone chart from the Center for Disease Control.

Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Hello all!

When discussing any topic in Early Childhood Education, one should understand the theoretical and philosophical background of the field.

 No, you do not need to be Socrates to get it.

 How many of you have heard of Developmentally Appropriate Practice? How many of you know what it actually means?

 Developmentally Appropriate Practice was developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children many years ago. The authors, Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp, define the philosophy as activities being age appropriate, individually appropriate, and socially/culturally appropriate.

 Age appropriate considers the child's chronological age versus his/her developmental age. For example, if a child is chronologically two-years-old; however, he/she is completing tasks for an eighteen-month old, then the adult would have the child attempt to complete the tasks appropriate for an eighteen-month-old child.

Individually appropriate allows the adult to adapt or modify the activities to meet the child's task level while socially/culturally appropriate takes into account the child's social skills as well as their family's cultural background.

The Council for Exceptional Children followed suit by writing a Position Statement on Best Practice. The concepts are very similar although children with special needs or developmental delays were taken into account.

For more information about either of these philosophies, then please feel free to visit the National Association for the Education of Young Children's website at http://www.naeyc.org and the Council for Exceptional Children's website at http://www.cec.sped.org.