Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) in Early Childhood Education (ECE) is a teaching
approach that focuses on creating learning environments and tasks that match the developmental
stage of a child, rather than their chronological age. This approach acknowledges that children
develop and learn at different rates, and that their learning experiences should be tailored to their
individual needs and abilities.
On the other hand, a linguistic scaffold is a method used by adults to support the language
development of young children. This involves expanding and extending the child's language, asking
Repository of Resources on Developmentally Appropriate Practice for
New Teachers
New early childhood educators can find it challenging to incorporate
all aspects of Developmentally Appropriate Practice into their work
with children. Having access to resources on ways to apply DAP to
instructional practices and the classroom environment can help.
Discussion Guidelines:
1. Find an article, website, or video on utilizing Developmentally
Appropriate Practice. Be sure that your resource is from a credible
source. If you need more information on identifying credible sources
please see this link:
How to Determine a Reliable Source on the
Internet (thoughtco.com)
2. Post your submission by sharing a link to the resource and provide
a short overview of the information that is shared. This overview
should be 100-200 words in length.
3. Review the resources shared in the discussion thread and provide a
response to two resources that were shared by your classmates. Your
responses should be 50-100 words in length and can address why you
feel the resource would be a good one to share with parents, what you
found interesting about the resource, or anything else you would like
to share about the resource.
