Developmentally appropriate practice Essay

In your own words, explain what the term developmentally appropriate practice means to you. Developmentally appropriate practice is centered on the understanding of children’s social and culture backgrounds, as it will allow you to gain the knowledge of how to assist children as they develop and learn. Describe at least two personal connections you made with the DAP information you discovered on the NAEYC site. The two personal connections I made with the DAP information I discovered on the NAEYC site would be The 10 effective teaching strategies, due to the fact that they are efficient methods for teachers, but at the same time efficient enough for parents, as I’m sure we use them often with our own children. Another connection would be DPA with relation to the DAP with Preschoolers, Ages 3-5. It stated that children are able to learn and absorb more when they fill safe and comfortable in there learning environment. This I really think that applies not only to kids, but also adults. Everyone performs better when they are not stressed or unaware. It is important when working with children to interact with them while they play, I know see that there is always a learning opportunity while playing. It might be cooking in the kitchen with the kids, while pretending to eat, or drink tea. I remember, not to long a observing some of my student sitting at a play table eating pretend snacks that they made along with drinks, I asked the kids what they made, which allowed me to see if they knew what their snack was that they made. Summarize three main things you learned from exploring the site. How will they impact your career in early childhood education? The first thing that sunk in my head knowing what is normal at each age and stage of development, which is crucial. The next is that it is key to build a relationship with parents of children, so that you will have an idea of their goals for their child along with their expectations. â€Å"We must make an effort to get to know the children’s families and learn about the values, expectations, and factors that shape their lives at home and in their communities. This background information helps us provide meaningful, relevant, and respectful learning experiences for each child and family† (http://www.naeyc.org/DAP). The last thing I obtained from exploring the site is the key factor that will allow families to maintain involvement in their child’s developmental  and educational journey. Meaning teacher-parent communication is crucial factor. Give a description of why play is an important part of a developmentally appropriate curriculum. Be sure to support your statements with at least one scholarly source. Give an explanation of how play can help to support a child’s physical, cognitive, and affective development. I would say that play is important factor in a early childhood, because it allows children to deal with their emotions and behaviors as well as the emotions of their friends and classmates. Thiis could include controlling feelings, how to follow limits and expectations, learning how to socialize, how to develop friendship by sharing, children also learn language by engaging in conversations. Play allow children to build developmental skills such as fine and gross motor skills, logic/ reasoning skills, and critical thinking skills. Play allows many opportunities for lessons to be learned. Children learn through play using cognitive, physical, and affective development. Playing different games and activities is an effective method for learning and it also demonstrates cognitive learning where the child connects with and identifies while playing. Physical skills allows the child to maintain balance, along with accessing there fine and gross motor skills, which will help them become mobile. â€Å"Affective development is key when referring to children learning through play, because it highlights social needs, physical, and language development† (Hao, Y., 2000). An example of one play-based activity that demonstrates to parents how play supports their child’s development. For instance, you could explain how playing a game of hopscotch can help a child with their gross motor skills (physical development) and counting (cognitive development). Please make sure that your play-based activity is an original idea or that if you use an idea from an outside source it is properly formatted according to APA as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Also, this should be a brief description of an activity. It is not a lesson plan. A play based activity that could support a child development could be having  a water table set up, with different rubber fishes. The plan would be to give the children play fishing pole to try and catch fish. The cognitive part would be to identify what color fish and how many fish they caught. They would be using physical development by applying there fine motor skills, because they would be trying to maneuver the fishing poles in such ways to catch a fish. It will also allow them to interact and observed the children that do catch fish, hoping that the next student will follow in order to catch a fish. Reference Hao, Y. (2000). Relationship between Teachers’ Use of Reflection and Other Selected Variables and Preschool Teachers’ Engagement in Developmentally Appropriate Practice.