Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Article: Developmentally Appropriate Practice - NAEYC

Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age Eight


What is Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)?

DAP is defined as methods that promote each child’s optimal development and learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful, engaged learning.

Three Core Considerations of Developmentally Appropriate Practice


  1. Knowledge of childhood development:

Knowing typical development and learning at different ages provides you with a benchmarks that will help prepare you to make decisions on the environment, interactions, activities, and materials. This knowledge should be based on research.


  1. Knowing what is individually appropriate for each child through assessment:

Observing children at play, their interactions with their peers and environment helps you learn each child's interests, skills, and developmental progress. These observations are crucial in refining how and what to teach each child as an individual. Having this knowledge allows you to know each child's individual skills, needs, strengths, abilities, challenges, and interests.


  1. Knowing what is culturally important:

Each child has their own cultural and family background. Having this knowledge ensures that each experience is respectful and meaningful for each child and family.

What is Developmentally Appropriate?

Activities to Support Physical development:

  • Infants: Tummy time to build neck and upper body strength, holding and grasping items for grip strength

  • Toddlers: Block play for hand-eye coordination, walking around for balance and gross motor skills.

  • Preschoolers: Running and stopping for spatial awareness, drawing and writing for fine motor skills

Activities to Support Intellectual development:

  • Infants: Reading to them and pointing out simple shapes, colours and counting things is helpful to help children understand these concepts

  • Toddlers: Making and identifying shapes during play, organizing toys during cleanup by colour and encouraging them to count.

  • Preschoolers: engage in simple mathematics like simple addition and subtraction in daily routines as well as measuring things.

Activities to Promote Language development:

  • Infants: Read to them like you're talking to them. Hold eye contact and use hand gestures to help infants understand verbal communication.

  • Toddlers: Read, sing, repeat! Allow toddlers to repeat their favourite songs and stories to you and encourage them to add onto their statements.

  • Preschoolers: Engage preschoolers in the storytelling process by pausing to ask them to interpret what's going on. Ask open-ended questions and have frequent conversations to help build their vocabulary.

Activities to Promote Social-Emotional Development:

  • Infants: Exaggerate your facial expressions and enthusiasm when interacting with infants and model empathy.

  • Toddlers: Offer toddlers specific language to help them identify their emotions as they are happening. Describe how a character in a book or show is feeling to help them relate.

  • Preschoolers: Encourage conversations around why a child feels a certain way. Model mindfulness and self-awareness to show different ways to feel better.

Activities to Promote Social Development:

  • Infants: Babble to them and encourage responses. Engage in eye contact to help them associate it with communication.

  • Toddlers: Encourage group play and positively reinforce when children are being kind to one another. In the event of a conflict, help children communicate their boundaries using words instead of hitting.

  • Preschoolers: Model cooperation and empathy. Help children develop their confidence by encouraging group activities.

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