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Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Fourth Edition
Clear, Relevant, Evidence-Based Guidance to Support Early Childhood Educators
Spring 2022 Academic's Choice Awards Smart Book Winner. Developmentally appropriate practice is the foundation on which quality early learning is built. The fourth edition of this classic, influential text addresses developmentally appropriate practice within the context of the ever-changing and evolving world of early childhood education. With a strong focus on equity and teaching and supporting all children, it underscores the importance of social, cultural, and historical contexts of development.
Research Based
Based on what the research says about child development, how children learn, and effective practices—as well as what professional experience tells the field about intentional teaching—this book provides a thorough discussion of the core considerations, principles, and guidelines that inform educators’ decision making. You’ll find extensive examples of effective approaches for teaching children across the early childhood spectrum as well as specific examples for infants and toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, and children in the primary grades.
Even More Resources for Early Childhood Professionals
This edition provides a comprehensive approach to implementing practices that ensure all young children have access to high-quality early learning. New resources in the book and online support higher education faculty, K–3 leaders, and early childhood educators in extending their own and others’ knowledge and application of developmentally appropriate practice.
For higher education
• Suggested activities, assignments, and reflections that correspond to specific content in the book, key areas of practice in NAEYC’s position statement on developmentally appropriate practice, and the professional standards and competencies
• A test bank to create quick quizzes
For K–3
• Considerations for incorporating developmentally appropriate practice into K–3 schools and programs, including those that provide pre-K, to foster children’s joyful learning and maximize learning opportunities for all children
For early childhood
• Tips and resources for engaging with content in the book, extending learning with additional resources, and collaborating with others in the early childhood learning community
Spring 2022 Academic's Choice Awards Smart Book Winner. Developmentally appropriate practice is the foundation on which quality early learning is built. The fourth edition of this classic, influential text addresses developmentally appropriate practice within the context of the ever-changing and evolving world of early childhood education. With a strong focus on equity and teaching and supporting all children, it underscores the importance of social, cultural, and historical contexts of development.
Research Based
Based on what the research says about child development, how children learn, and effective practices—as well as what professional experience tells the field about intentional teaching—this book provides a thorough discussion of the core considerations, principles, and guidelines that inform educators’ decision making. You’ll find extensive examples of effective approaches for teaching children across the early childhood spectrum as well as specific examples for infants and toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, and children in the primary grades.
Even More Resources for Early Childhood Professionals
This edition provides a comprehensive approach to implementing practices that ensure all young children have access to high-quality early learning. New resources in the book and online support higher education faculty, K–3 leaders, and early childhood educators in extending their own and others’ knowledge and application of developmentally appropriate practice.
For higher education
• Suggested activities, assignments, and reflections that correspond to specific content in the book, key areas of practice in NAEYC’s position statement on developmentally appropriate practice, and the professional standards and competencies
• A test bank to create quick quizzes
For K–3
• Considerations for incorporating developmentally appropriate practice into K–3 schools and programs, including those that provide pre-K, to foster children’s joyful learning and maximize learning opportunities for all children
For early childhood
• Tips and resources for engaging with content in the book, extending learning with additional resources, and collaborating with others in the early childhood learning community
387 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 14, 2021
32 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 29, 2024
NAEYC is one of the leading bodies in childcare and early education. But this guidebook does a poor job of explaining how.
Far too often material of this kind seems to have been generated strictly from inner city programs (for that matter, social commentary on the whole). Its conclusions and assumptions appear to be worlds away from my own experiences working at a military child development center. Maybe the problems it sees and attempts to address really are endemic there, but not here.
The most egregious example appears in an “In Context” focus box on page 28: “There is evidence that children begin to see race as early as 3 months old; they gaze more at faces that look like their caregivers.” And so on.
Such bullocks.
As a military program we’re about as integrated as you can get. We have caregivers of many nationalities and races. But specifically I work in an infant room. I can promise you that a black child and a white child are not looking at each other as anything other than other children. I have seen many friendships that last throughout their overlapping tenures with me. I have had many great relationships with black children (in my age group and throughout the facility, up to age 5). I am white.
There’s an insidious bias in evidence. The book keeps trying to clarify what bad caregiving looks like, but never stops to ask why it exists or happens. It just keeps hammering ways to improve. But if implicit bias exists, no manner of remedies will fix things.
By the time the book hits the backstretch it spends a huge chunk of space on lists explaining good and bad ways of doing things. I read through the bad. But this whole section is poorly conceived. And then the book finishes, basically, by highlighting program directors stating what they think professionalism means. This adds very little value, and its lack of ground level caregivers is borderline insulting.
Too much is assumed. It’s assumed, most of all, that a book of guidelines is mostly about caregivers either screwing up on a constant basis, or a series of anecdotes that are unconvincing ways to demonstrate how easy it would be not to. For a book with the words “developmentally appropriate practice,” it spends little enough time exploring individual ages (that good/bad section is about the only time it does), and leans older than it tries at all to cover all its bases. In its broad generalizations, it matches perfectly its inability to look past its own biases.
So it’s not a book for just anyone. Caregivers who really have little idea about what they’re doing should, but never would, have a look. Anyone looking to learn something new won’t find much here.
Far too often material of this kind seems to have been generated strictly from inner city programs (for that matter, social commentary on the whole). Its conclusions and assumptions appear to be worlds away from my own experiences working at a military child development center. Maybe the problems it sees and attempts to address really are endemic there, but not here.
The most egregious example appears in an “In Context” focus box on page 28: “There is evidence that children begin to see race as early as 3 months old; they gaze more at faces that look like their caregivers.” And so on.
Such bullocks.
As a military program we’re about as integrated as you can get. We have caregivers of many nationalities and races. But specifically I work in an infant room. I can promise you that a black child and a white child are not looking at each other as anything other than other children. I have seen many friendships that last throughout their overlapping tenures with me. I have had many great relationships with black children (in my age group and throughout the facility, up to age 5). I am white.
There’s an insidious bias in evidence. The book keeps trying to clarify what bad caregiving looks like, but never stops to ask why it exists or happens. It just keeps hammering ways to improve. But if implicit bias exists, no manner of remedies will fix things.
By the time the book hits the backstretch it spends a huge chunk of space on lists explaining good and bad ways of doing things. I read through the bad. But this whole section is poorly conceived. And then the book finishes, basically, by highlighting program directors stating what they think professionalism means. This adds very little value, and its lack of ground level caregivers is borderline insulting.
Too much is assumed. It’s assumed, most of all, that a book of guidelines is mostly about caregivers either screwing up on a constant basis, or a series of anecdotes that are unconvincing ways to demonstrate how easy it would be not to. For a book with the words “developmentally appropriate practice,” it spends little enough time exploring individual ages (that good/bad section is about the only time it does), and leans older than it tries at all to cover all its bases. In its broad generalizations, it matches perfectly its inability to look past its own biases.
So it’s not a book for just anyone. Caregivers who really have little idea about what they’re doing should, but never would, have a look. Anyone looking to learn something new won’t find much here.
July 19, 2022
In the revised version, I give NAEYC credit for correcting some of their past wrongs that led to more narrow, linear, and truncated understandings of child development. That said, in reorganizing the text, it had lost some of its readability and some of its meat. More than half of this book is tables based on age groups, which are difficult to read and follow throughout. I wish there were multiple layouts of this information available so as to look at the information in a complete compiled continuum instead of largely repetitious information dispersed across many, many chapters. A swing in the right direction for sure, but it needs some organizational refinement.
April 2, 2023
If you're looking for a good resource on DAP, look no further.
July 7, 2023
Every educator birth-8 should have a copy
May 6, 2025
I value the information but the way it was written is hard to read
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews