Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Essence of Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Chapter 2.1
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Nitya was always interested in classical dancing. When she was young, she wanted to join Kathak classes but due to her family’s weak economic condition, she could never pursue her interest.
When she had a daughter, she wanted to see her little wonder to live the life that she could never live. To her thrill, as Ragya came of age, she could not stop her feet or hums at the sound of music. So as soon as she turned 4, Nitya excitedly enrolled her in Kathak classes.
Life gave Nitya another chance!
While seeing her little princess learn the dance, she talked to the Guru if there was any chance that she could also learn the art form in her late 20s.
The Guru Ma smiled and said, “There is no age for learning anything new. Hence, I would not stop you from taking my classes. But Ragya’s learning curve is going to be steeper than yours. She has your genes and an interest in dancing for sure but the environment that you have set her up right in her formative years, are going to serve high returns. She can be a fine Kathak dancer”
As Ragya trained over years to live up to her teacher’s prophecy, she excelled at not just Kathak but other contemporary dance forms.
“Our Indian culture and art forms can indeed make us fit into anything modern that the world can offer us” her Guru Ma used to proudly claim.
Brain Architecture sheds light on the science behind how kids can assimilate tons of information in the elementary years.
Let’s Reflect
1. Early Years are all about how each child is distinct both biologically (nature) and experientially (nurture). Research says that brain development, which is exponential from birth till the age of six, when combined with a stimulating and developmentally appropriate activity/education can lead to the highest form of learning. (putting Ragya in a dancing school at age 4, led her to learn faster than her mother and become a professional and renowned dancer as an adult). Thus, making it equally important for parents to bring out the best version of their kid during the formative years.
2. Are the results immediate? No. The beauty lies in the fact that development is cumulative in nature-each one laying foundation for the later learnings. Probably that is what helped Ragya to excel in modern dance forms too.
In our previous module, we talked about the importance of early years, the influence of the biology, environment, and experiences of the child in their development. The unique combination of nature and nurture plays a vital role in the developmental rate and state of the respective child. ‘Nature & Nurture’ regulate each other in how environment & experiences interplay with the child’s underlying biological makeup to help in his development, right from infancy through early primary years.
As we now can gauge early years as a period of rapid growth & development physically, emotionally and socially, each day in the life of a parent seems to involve a great deal of decision making that concerns the care and development of their young ones .
This is where DAP comes into play as it supports optimal learning and development during the early years.
Answering some of the FAQ that might strike you…
What is Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)?
Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is an amalgamation of research on effective learning practices in young children combined with age appropriate interests in an individual child. It yields the highest levels of holistic learning and development in children. DAP involves closely observing & assessing the characteristics of your child. It is made up of a teaching that is attuned to your child’s individual interests, abilities, ages and experience. The simplest way is to just watch your little one wonder play and see what they naturally gravitate towards. Once known, implementing thoughtful and appropriate decisions for his/her holistic development during the early childhood phase is what is needed.
Why does it have to be different for each child?
It is essential to carefully observe & assess the characteristics of the child and implement thoughtful and appropriate decisions for their holistic development during the early childhood phase.
The personalized curriculum’s goal is to not just to support the learning and development as per the age but also, challenge them and help them stretch a little more each time, to promote further progress.
What are the core principles of DAP?
1. Age is just a number, we say. But with kids, it can make all the difference. Parents need to be aware of age appropriate characteristics of their kids-age when he babbles and how to babble back or coo back for his cognitive development or at what age self-feeding begins and you can give him finger foods. Of course, you won’t know all (and that is why we are here) but knowing some as to what kind of experiences at an age will support your child’s learning & development can come handy any day.
2. Each child is different and will not fit into the standard mold – Variations in the extent and pace of development depends solely on each child as per his personality, approach to learning, interests, skills and so on.
A child brought up around a pet dog may be jolly around one but other children might be scared of dogs. “I see that a dog scares you. I wonder if it is because it is barking. Let me pick you up and let’s walk quietly on the side so that it won’t harm us”
Hence, parents need to have different scales and balances for each of their kid and be flexible to adapt new activities/education plans as per the varying demands of each child.
3. Home culture is important– Being rooted and imbibing the values of the community and culture that we live in needs to be taught at home and can serve as learning environments. A ‘Namaste’ when some guests arrive, folding hands after waking up in the morning to the rising sun, offering food to the gods before eating yourself can be good cultural attributes that kids pick up very early and very deeply.
DAP is also about raising the bar
The goal of DAP is to not only support the learning and development as per the age but also expand the horizons of kids by giving them challenges and stretch a little beyond their comfort zones in order to promote further progress in terms of higher skills, abilities or knowledge.
At the same time giving them the required nudge to go beyond must be just a step ahead and too ahead for the child to get demoralized and lose interest.
Once the child begins holding the tumbler with water, you can increase the proficiency level by asking them to pour it into another container with a wide mouth, gradually the difficulty can be increased by asking them to pour into containers with narrow openings.
Here, if in the first go itself the child is asked to pour into a narrow width opening, he/she might not have the required firmness of grip yet and end up spilling all water. This can be taken as self-doubt and or disappointment by the child.
The good news is the toddler will be more than willing to jump into task (PLAY) thereby strengthening his motor skills. Wink Wink!
In the next article on Effective Parenting strategies, we will talk about parenting ideas at length.
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