Developmentally Appropriate Practice

National Association for the Education of Young Children

Position Statement

Adopted by the NAEYC National

Governing Board April 2020

Each and every child, birth through age 8, has the right to equitable learning

opportunities—in centers, family child care homes, or schools—that fully

support their optimal development and learning across all domains and

content areas. Children are born eager to learn; they take delight exploring

their world and making connections. The degree to which early learning

programs support children’s delight and wonder in learning reects

the quality of that setting. Educators who engage in developmentally

appropriate practice foster young children’s joyful learning and maximize

the opportunities for each and every child to achieve their full potential.

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Position Statement

of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

NAEYC.org

Developmentally Appropriate Practice

3 Introduction

3 Purpose

5 Statement of the Position

5 Dening Developmentally Appropriate Practice

6 Core Considerations to Inform Decision Making

8 Principles of Child Development and Learning

and Implications That Inform Practice

14 Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Action:

Using Knowledge of Child Development and Learning in Context

15 1. Creating a Caring, Equitable Community of Learners

18 2. Engaging in Reciprocal Partnerships with Families and Fostering Community Connections

19 3. Observing, Documenting, and Assessing Children’s Development and Learning

21 4. Teaching to Enhance Each Child’s Development and Learning

25 5. Planning and Implementing an Engaging Curriculum to Achieve Meaningful Goals

28 6. Demonstrating Professionalism as an Early Childhood Educator

29 Recommendations for Implementing Developmentally Appropriate Practice

30 1. Recommendations for Schools, Family Child Care Homes, and Other Program Settings

31 2. Recommendations for Higher Education and Adult Development

31 3. Recommendations for Policymakers

32 4. Recommendations for Research

32 Conclusion

33 Appendix A: History and Context

35 Appendix B: Glossary

38 Appendix C: Acknowledgements

39 Endnotes

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 3

Introduction

Purpose

Chief among the professional responsibilities of early childhood educators is the responsibility to

plan and implement intentional, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that promote the

social and emotional development, physical development and health, cognitive development, and

general learning competencies of each child served.

But what does it mean to be “developmentally

appropriate”? This position statement, one of ve foundational documents developed by NAEYC

in collaboration with the early childhood profession to advance high-quality early learning for

all young children, denes the term. The denition emerges from a set of evidence-based core

considerations and principles of child development and learning, all of which are explained in the

principles section of this statement. To support educators’ use of developmentally appropriate

practice, this statement also identies guidelines for decision making in six key areas of responsibility

that correspond to the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators.

Developmentally

Appropriate

Practice (DAP)

Professional

Standards and

Competencies for

Early Childhood

Educators

Code of

Ethical Conduct

Advancing

Equity in Early

Childhood

Education

NAEYC

Early

Childhood

Program

Standards

NAEYC’s Foundational Documents

4 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

This statement’s primary focus is on the decisions early childhood

educators make that result in developmentally appropriate

practice. It is important to note, however, that educators

make these decisions within settings that include their specic

programs as well as broader systems, states, and societal

contexts. Decision making that advances developmentally

appropriate practice is facilitated when these systems also

reect the tenets described within this statement. Therefore, in

addition to identifying guidelines for early childhood educators,

the statement makes specic recommendations for policies and

actions needed to support educators as they strive to implement

developmentally appropriate practice—in their work settings,

through professional preparation and development, in public

policy, and through continuing research.

This is the fourth edition of NAEYC’s position statement on

developmentally appropriate practice. (For a brief history and

summary of changes from previous editions, see Appendix A.)

More extensively than in previous editions, the denition, core

considerations, principles, guidelines, and recommendations

all underscore the importance of social, cultural, and historical

contexts. This broader view emphasizes the implications of

contexts not only for each child, but also for all the adults

(educators, administrators, and others) involved in any aspect

of early childhood education.

We begin this statement noting multiple tensions:

1. This position statement is based on a synthesis of current

research and evidence across multiple disciplines. Although

research nds that culture and context matter, relatively

little research has been conducted with children from non-

White and non-middle-class backgrounds. There is also a

need for additional research led by those who reect the

diversity of children and families and their lived experiences.

2. This position statement requires well-prepared and qualied

early childhood educators to engage in eective decision

making. Yet insucient funding and other policy decisions

(for example, budget-driven decisions related to group

size and ratios or mandated curricula and assessments

that do not reect the principles of development and

learning identied here) have resulted in suboptimal

environments, challenging working conditions, and

inadequate compensation that make it dicult for early

childhood educators to implement these guidelines.

3. This position statement elevates the crucial support

educators require from higher education and other

professional development systems. Yet even as they

grapple with their own institutional biases and inequities,

professional preparation programs and ongoing professional

development systems must orient themselves towards

consistently and eectively preparing and supporting

educators to reect on and address their own inherent

biases and to help them provide developmentally, culturally,

and linguistically responsive learning experiences to

an increasingly diverse population of children.

4. This position statement highlights the importance of

learning experiences that are meaningful to each child

and that provide active engagement through play,

exploration, and inquiry in ways that support the whole

child—socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. Yet

such opportunities are too often denied to young children

when educational practices are not responsive to their

developmental, cultural, and linguistic characteristics.

5. This position statement is based on NAEYC’s core values

and beliefs, which underscore the fundamental right of each

and every child to live in a society dedicated to helping them

achieve their full potential. Yet the historical and current

inequitable distribution of societal power and privilege on

the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, language, disability, and

other social identities results in limited opportunities and

harms children—as well as early childhood professionals.

Each of these tensions must be addressed for each child to

achieve their full potential. We oer this statement as a call to

action, committing to work collectively to address the ways in

which current realities constrain the full potential of all young

children as we continue to reect and learn from multiple,

diverse perspectives.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 5

Statement of the Position

Each and every child, birth through age 8, has the right to equitable learning opportunities—in

centers, family child care homes, or schools—that fully support their optimal development and

learning across all domains and content areas. Children are born eager to learn; they take delight

exploring their world and making connections. The degree to which early learning programs

support children’s delight and wonder in learning reects the quality of that setting. Educators

who engage in developmentally appropriate practice foster young children’s joyful learning

and maximize the opportunities for each and every child to achieve their full potential.

Deﬁning Developmentally Appropriate Practice

NAEYC denes “developmentally appropriate practice” as

methods that promote each child’s optimal development and

learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to

joyful, engaged learning. Educators implement developmentally

appropriate practice by recognizing the multiple assets all young

children bring to the early learning program as unique individuals

and as members of families and communities. Building on

each child’s strengths—and taking care to not harm any aspect

of each child’s physical, cognitive, social, or emotional well-

being—educators design and implement learning environments

to help all children achieve their full potential across all domains

of development and across all content areas. Developmentally

appropriate practice recognizes and supports each individual

as a valued member of the learning community. As a result,

to be developmentally appropriate, practices must also be

culturally, linguistically, and ability appropriate for each child.

The Developmentally Appropriate Practice Position Statement

is a framework of principles and guidelines to support a teacher’s

intentional decision making for practice. The principles serve

as the evidence base for the guidelines for practice, and both

are situated within three core considerations—commonality,

individuality, and context.

6 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Core Considerations

to Inform Decision Making

Developmentally appropriate practice requires early childhood educators to seek out and gain

knowledge and understanding using three core considerations: commonality in children’s development

and learning, individuality reecting each child’s unique characteristics and experiences, and the

context in which development and learning occur. These core considerations apply to all aspects of

educators’ decision-making in their work to foster each child’s optimal development and learning.

1 Commonality—current research and understandings

of processes of child development and learning that

apply to all children, including the understanding that

all development and learning occur within specic

social, cultural, linguistic, and historical contexts

An ever-increasing body of research documents the tremendous

amount of development and learning that occur from birth

through age 8 across all domains and content areas and how

foundational this development and learning is for later life.

This extensive knowledge base, including both what is known

about general processes of children’s development and learning

and the educational practices educators need to fully support

development and learning in all areas, is summarized in the

principles section of this statement.

When considering commonalities in development and learning,

it is important to acknowledge that much of the research

and the principal theories that have historically guided early

childhood professional preparation and practice have primarily

reected norms based on a Western scientic-cultural model.

Little research has considered a normative perspective based

on other groups. As a result, dierences from this Western

(typically White, middle-class, monolingual English-speaking)

norm have been viewed as decits, helping to perpetuate

systems of power and privilege and to maintain structural

inequities.

7, 8

Increasingly, theories once assumed to be universal

in developmental sciences, such as attachment, are now

recognized to vary by culture and experience.

The current body of evidence indicates that all child development

and learning—actually, all human development and learning—

are always embedded within and aected by social and cultural

contexts.

As social and cultural contexts vary, so too do

processes of development and learning. Social and cultural

aspects are not simply ingredients of development and learning;

these aspects provide the framework for all development and

learning. For example, play is a universal phenomenon across

all cultures (it also extends to other primates). Play, however,

can vary signicantly by social and cultural contexts as children

use play as a means of interpreting and making sense of their

experiences.

Early childhood educators need to understand the

commonalities of children’s development and learning and how

those commonalities take unique forms as they reect the social

and cultural frameworks in which they occur.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 7

2 Individuality—the characteristics and experiences

unique to each child, within the context of their

family and community, that have implications for

how best to support their development and learning

Early childhood educators have the responsibility of getting to

know each child well, understanding each child as an individual

and as a family and community member. Educators use a variety

of methods—including reecting on their knowledge of the

community; seeking information from the family; observing the

child; examining the child’s work; and using authentic, valid,

and reliable individual child assessments. Educators understand

that each child reects a complex mosaic of knowledge and

experiences that contributes to the considerable diversity

among any group of young children. These dierences include

the children’s various social identities, interests, strengths, and

preferences; their personalities, motivations, and approaches to

learning; and their knowledge, skills, and abilities related to their

cultural experiences, including family languages, dialects, and

vernaculars. Children may have disabilities or other individual

learning needs, including needs for accelerated learning.

Sometimes these individual learning needs have been diagnosed,

and sometimes they have not.

Early childhood educators recognize this diversity and the

opportunities it oers to support all children’s learning by

recognizing each child as a unique individual with assets

and strengths to contribute to the early childhood education

learning environment.

3 Context—everything discernible about the

social and cultural contexts for each child, each

educator, and the program as a whole

One of the key updates in this revision is the expansion of the

core consideration regarding the social and cultural contexts of

development and learning. As noted in the rst core consideration

on commonality, the fact that development and learning are

embedded in social and cultural contexts is true of all individuals.

Context includes both one’s personal cultural context (that is, the

complex set of ways of knowing the world that reect one’s family

and other primary caregivers and their traditions and values)

and the broader multifaceted and intersecting (for example,

social, racial, economic, historical, and political) cultural contexts

in which each of us live. In both the individual- and societal-

denitions, these are dynamic rather than static contexts that

shape and are shaped by individual members as well as other

factors.

Early childhood educators must also be aware that they

themselves—and their programs as a whole—bring their own

experiences and contexts, in both the narrower and broader

denitions, to their decision-making. This is particularly

important to consider when educators do not share the cultural

contexts of the children they serve. Yet even when educators

appear to share the cultural contexts of children, they can

sometimes experience a disconnection between their professional

and cultural knowledge.

To fully support each child’s optimal development and learning

in an increasingly diverse society, early childhood educators need

to understand the implications of these contexts. By recognizing

that children’s experiences may vary by their social identities (for

example, by race or ethnicity, language, gender, class, ability, family

composition, and economic status, among others), with dierent

and intersecting impacts on their development and learning,

educators can make adaptations to arm and support positive

development of each child’s multiple social identities. Additionally,

educators must be aware of, and counter, their own and larger

societal biases that may undermine a child’s positive development

and well-being. Early childhood educators have a professional

responsibility to be life-long learners who are able to foster life-long

learning in children; in this, they must keep abreast of research

developments, while also learning continuously from families and

communities they serve.

8 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Principles of Child Development and Learning

and Implications That Inform Practice

NAEYC’s guidelines and recommendations for developmentally appropriate practice are based on

the following nine principles and their implications for early childhood education professional practice.

These principles reect an extensive research base that is only partially referenced here.

Because

these principles are interrelated, this linear list does not fully represent their overall complexity.

1 Development and learning are dynamic processes

that reect the complex interplay between a child’s

biological characteristics and the environment, each

shaping the other as well as future patterns of growth.

Advances in neuroscience over the last two decades have provided

new insights regarding the processes of early brain development

and their long-term implications for development and learning.

The ndings provide robust evidence supporting the importance

of high-quality early learning experiences for young children for

promoting children’s lifelong success.

Neural connections in the brain—which are the basis for all

thought, communication, and learning—are established most

rapidly in early childhood.

The processes of forming new

neural connections and pruning the neural connections that

are not used continue throughout a person’s lifespan but are

most consequential in the rst three years.

When adults are

sensitive and respond to an infant’s babble, cry, or gesture, they

directly support the development of neural connections that lay

the foundation for children’s communication and social skills,

including self-regulation. These “serve and return” interactions

shape the brain’s architecture.

They also help educators and

others “tune in” to the infant and better respond to the infant’s

wants and needs.

The interplay of biology and environment, present at birth,

continues through the preschool years and primary grades

(kindergarten through grade 3). This has particular implications

for children who experience adversity. In infancy, for example,

a persistent lack of responsive care results in the infant

experiencing chronic stress that may negatively impact brain

development and may delay or impair the development of

essential systems and abilities, including thinking, learning,

and memory, as well as the immune system and the ability to

cope with stress.

Living in persistent poverty can also generate

chronic stress that negatively aects the development of brain

areas associated with cognitive and self-regulatory functions.

No group is monolithic, and data specic to communities

provides a deeper understanding of children’s experiences and

outcomes. It is important to recognize that although children of

all races and ethnicities experience poverty and other adverse

childhood experiences (ACEs), Black and Latino/a children, as

well as children in refugee and immigrant families, children in

some Asian-American families, and children in Native American

families, have been found to be more likely to experience ACEs

than White non-Latino/a and other Asian-American populations

of children,

reecting a history of systemic inequities.

Moreover, racism itself must be recognized not only for its

immediate and obvious impacts on children, but also for its

long-term negative impacts, in which the repetitive trauma

created by racism can predispose individuals to chronic disease.

It should be noted that these stressors and trauma aect adults as

well as children, including family members and early childhood

educators themselves, who, despite their skills and importance,

often earn wages that place them into poverty.

Some children appear to be more susceptible than others to

the eects of environmental inuence—both positive and

negative—reecting individual dierences at play. For children

facing adverse circumstances, including trauma, the buering

eects of caring, consistent relationships—with family and other

community members but also in high-quality early childhood

programs—are also important to note.

This emerging science

emphasizes the critical importance of early childhood educators

in providing consistent, responsive, sensitive care and education

to promote children’s development and learning across the full

birth-through-8 age span. The negative impacts of chronic stress

and other adverse experiences can be overcome. High-quality

early childhood education contributes substantially to children’s

resilience and healthy development.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 9

2 All domains of child development—physical

development, cognitive development, social and

emotional development, and linguistic development

(including bilingual or multilingual development), as

well as approaches to learning—are important; each

domain both supports and is supported by the others.

Early childhood educators are responsible for fostering children’s

development and learning in all these domains as well as in general

learning competencies and executive functioning, which include

attention, working memory, self-regulation, reasoning, problem

solving, and approaches to learning. There is considerable overlap

and interaction across these domains and competencies. For

example, sound nutrition, physical activity, and sucient sleep

all promote children’s abilities to engage in social interactions

that, in turn, stimulate cognitive growth. Children who experience

predictable, responsive relationships and responsive interactions

with adults also tend to demonstrate improved general learning

competencies and executive functioning.

Changes in one domain often impact other areas and highlight

each area’s importance. For example, as children begin to crawl

or walk, they gain new possibilities for exploring the world. This

mobility in turn aects both their cognitive development and their

ability to satisfy their curiosity, underscoring the importance of

adaptations for children with disabilities that limit their mobility.

Likewise, language development inuences a child’s ability to

participate in social interaction with adults and other children;

such interactions, in turn, support further language development

as well as further social, emotional, and cognitive development.

Science is clear that children can learn multiple languages as

easily as one, given adequate exposure and practice, and this

process brings cognitive advantages.

In groups in which children

speak dierent home languages, educators may not be able to

speak each language, but they can value and support maintaining

all languages.

A growing body of work demonstrates relationships between social,

emotional, executive function, and cognitive competencies

as well

as the importance of movement and physical activity.

These areas

of learning are mutually reinforcing and all are critical in educating

young children across birth through age 8. Intentional teaching

strategies, including, and particularly, play (both self-directed and

guided), address each domain. Kindergartens and grades 1-3 tend

to be considered elementary or primary education, and, as such,

may have increasingly prioritized cognitive learning at the expense

of physical, social, emotional, and linguistic development. But

integrating cognitive, emotional, social, interpersonal skills and

self-regulatory competencies better prepares children for more

challenging academic content and learning experiences.

In brief,

the knowledge base documents the importance of a comprehensive

curriculum and the interrelatedness of the developmental domains

for all young children’s well-being and success.

3 Play promotes joyful learning that fosters self-

regulation, language, cognitive and social competencies

as well as content knowledge across disciplines. Play

is essential for all children, birth through age 8.

Play (e.g., self-directed, guided, solitary, parallel, social,

cooperative, onlooker, object, fantasy, physical, constructive, and

games with rules) is the central teaching practice that facilitates

young children’s development and learning. Play develops young

children’s symbolic and imaginative thinking, peer relationships,

language (English and/or additional languages), physical

development, and problem-solving skills. All young children need

daily, sustained opportunities for play, both indoors and outdoors.

Play helps children develop large-motor and ne-motor physical

competence, explore and make sense of their world, interact with

others, express and control their emotions, develop symbolic

and problem-solving abilities, and practice emerging skills.

Consistently, studies nd clear links between play and foundational

capacities such as working memory, self-regulation, oral language

abilities, social skills, and success in school.

Indeed, play embodies the characteristics of eective development

and learning described in principles 4 and 5—active, meaningful

engagement driven by children’s choices. Researchers studying the

pedagogy of play have identied three key components: choice

(the children’s decisions to engage in play, as well as decisions

about its direction and its continuation), wonder (children’s

continued engagement as they explore, gather information, test

hypotheses, and make meaning), and delight (the joy and laughter

associated with the pleasure of the activity, making discoveries,

and achieving new things).

Play also typically involves social

interaction with peers and/or adults.

Although adults can be play partners (for example, playing

peekaboo with an infant) or play facilitators (by making a

suggestion to extend the activity in a certain way), the more

that the adult directs an activity or interaction, the less likely it

will be perceived as play by the child. When planning learning

environments and activities, educators may nd it helpful to

consider a continuum ranging from children’s self-directed play

to direct instruction.

Neither end of the continuum is eective

by itself in creating a high-quality early childhood program.

Eective, developmentally-appropriate practice does not mean

simply letting children play in the absence of a planned learning

environment, nor does it mean predominantly oering direct

instruction. In the middle of the continuum is guided play.

Educators create learning environments that reect children’s

interests; they provide sustained time and opportunities for

children to engage in self-directed play (individually and in

small groups). Educators also strategically make comments and

suggestions and ask questions to help move children toward a

learning goal, even as children continue to lead the activity.

10 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Guided play gives educators opportunities to use children’s

interests and creations to introduce new vocabulary and

concepts, model complex language, and provide children with

multiple opportunities to use words in context in children’s home

languages as well as in English. These meaningful and engaging

experiences help children—including those in kindergarten and

the primary grades—build knowledge and vocabulary across

subject areas and in purposeful contexts (which is more eective

than memorization of word lists).

Despite evidence that supports the value of play, not all

children are aorded the opportunity to play, a reality which

disproportionately aects Black and Latino/a children.

Play

is often viewed as being at odds with the demands of formal

schooling, especially for children growing up in under-resourced

communities.

In fact, the highly didactic, highly controlling

curriculum found in many kindergarten and primary grades, with

its narrow focus on test-focused skill development, is unlikely

to be engaging or meaningful for children; it is also unlikely to

build the broad knowledge and vocabulary needed for reading

comprehension in later grades. Instead, the lesson children are

likely to learn is that they are not valued thinkers or successful

learners in school. For example, studies suggest that students

who are taught math primarily through memorization and rote

learning are more than a year behind those who have been

taught by relating math concepts to their existing knowledge and

reecting on their own understanding.

Even if not called play, cross-curricular and collaborative

approaches such as project-based learning, inquiry learning, or

making and tinkering share characteristics of playful learning.

Giving children autonomy and agency in how they approach

problems, make hypotheses, and explore potential solutions

with others promotes deeper learning and improves executive

functioning.

In sum, self-directed play, guided play, and playful

learning, skillfully supported by early childhood educators, build

academic language, deepen conceptual development, and support

reective and intentional approaches to learning—all of which add

up to eective strategies for long-term success.

4 Although general progressions of development

and learning can be identied, variations due to

cultural contexts, experiences, and individual

dierences must also be considered.

A pervasive characteristic of development is that children’s

functioning, including their play, becomes increasingly complex—

in language, cognition, social interaction, physical movement,

problem solving, and virtually every other aspect. Increased

organization and memory capacity of the developing brain make

it possible for children to combine simple routines into more

complex strategies with age.

Despite these predictable changes

in all domains, the ways that these changes are demonstrated

and the meanings attached to them will vary in dierent cultural

and linguistic contexts. For example, in some cultures, children

may be encouraged to satisfy their growing curiosity by moving

independently to explore the environment; in other cultures,

children may be socialized to seek answers to queries within

structured activities created for them by adults.

In addition,

all children learn language through their social interactions, but

there are important distinctions in the process for monolingual,

bilingual, and multilingual children.

Rather than assuming that

the process typical of monolingual children is the norm against

which others ought to be judged, it is important for educators to

recognize the dierences as variations in strengths (rather than

decits) and to support them appropriately.

Development and learning also occur at varying rates from

child to child and at uneven rates across dierent areas for

each child. Children’s demonstrated abilities and skills are

often uid and may vary from day to day based on individual

or contextual factors. For example, because children are still

developing the ability to direct their attention, a distraction in

the environment may result in a child successfully completing

a puzzle one day but not the next. In addition, some regression

in observed skills is common before new developments are

fully achieved.

For all of these reasons, the notion of “stages”

of development has limited utility; a more helpful concept may

be to think of waves of development that allow for considerable

overlap without rigid boundaries.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 11

5 Children are active learners from birth, constantly

taking in and organizing information to create meaning

through their relationships, their interactions with

their environment, and their overall experiences.

Even as infants, children are capable of highly complex thinking.

Using information they gather through their interactions with

people and things as well as their observations of the world

around them, they quickly create sophisticated theories to build

their conceptual understanding. They recognize patterns and

make predictions that they then apply to new situations. Infants

appear particularly attuned to adults as sources of information,

underscoring the importance of consistent, responsive caregiving

to support the formation of relationships.

Cultural variations

can be seen in these interactions, with implications for later

development and learning. For example, in some cultures,

children are socialized to quietly observe members of the adult

community and to learn by pitching in (often through mimicking

the adults’ behaviors).

In other cultures, adults make a point of

getting a child’s attention to encourage one-on-one interactions.

Children socialized to learn through observing may quietly watch

others without asking for help, while those socialized to expect

direct interaction may nd it dicult to maintain focus without

frequent adult engagement.

Throughout the early childhood years, young children continue to

construct knowledge and make meaning through their interactions

with adults and peers, through active exploration and play, and

through their observations of people and things in the world

around them. Educators recognize the importance of their role in

creating a rich, play-based learning environment that encourages

the development of knowledge (including vocabulary) and skills

across all domains. Educators understand that children’s current

abilities are largely the result of the experiences—the opportunities

to learn—that children have had. As such, children with disabilities

(or with the potential for a disability) have capacity to learn; they

need educators who do not label them or isolate them from their

peers and who are prepared to work with them and their families to

develop that potential.

In addition to learning language and concepts about the

physical phenomena in the world around them, children learn

powerful lessons about social dynamics as they observe the

interactions that educators have with them and other children

as well as peer interactions. Well before age 5, most young

children have rudimentary denitions of their own and others’

social identities that can include awareness of and biases

regarding gender and race.

Early childhood educators need to understand the importance

of creating a learning environment that helps children develop

social identities which do not privilege one group over another.

They must also be aware of the potential for implicit bias that

may prejudice their interactions with children of various social

identities.

Educators must also recognize that their nonverbal

signals may inuence children’s attitudes toward their peers. For

example, one recent study found that children will think a child

who receives more positive nonverbal signals from a teacher

is perceived as a “better” or “smarter” reader than a child who

receives more negative nonverbal signals, regardless of that child’s

actual reading performance.

6 Children’s motivation to learn is increased when

their learning environment fosters their sense of

belonging, purpose, and agency. Curricula and

teaching methods build on each child’s assets by

connecting their experiences in the school or learning

environment to their home and community settings.

This principle is drawn from the inuential report How People

Learn II and is supported by a growing body of research

that arms principles espoused more than 100 years ago by

John Dewey.

The sense of belonging requires both physical

and psychological safety. Seeing connections with home and

community can be a powerful signal for children’s establishing

psychological safety; conversely, when there are few signs of

connection for children, their psychological safety is jeopardized.

It is important for children to see people who look like them

across levels of authority, to hear and see their home language in

the learning environment, and to have learning experiences that

are both culturally and linguistically arming and responsive.

Equally important is encouraging each child’s sense of agency.

Opportunities for agency—that is, the ability to make and act

upon choices about what activities one will engage in and how

those activities will proceed—must be widely available for all

children, not limited as a reward after completing other tasks or

only oered to high-achieving students. Ultimately, motivation

is a personal decision based on the learner’s determination of

meaningfulness, interest, and engagement.

Educators can

promote children’s agency and help them feel motivated by

engaging them in challenging yet achievable tasks that build

on their interests and that they recognize as meaningful and

purposeful to their lives. Studies have found that some children

are denied opportunities to exercise agency because they are

mistakenly deemed unable to do so.

For educators, supporting

a child’s agency can be especially challenging when they do

not speak the same language as the child or are not able to

understand a child’s attempts to express solutions or preferences.

In these cases, nonverbal cues and/or technology-assistive

tools may be helpful as the educator also works to address the

communication barrier.

As noted earlier regarding brain development, children’s feelings

of safety and security are essential for the development of

higher-order thinking skills, so fostering that sense of belonging

is essentially a brain-building activity. Beginning in infancy,

educators who follow children’s lead in noticing their interests

12 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

and responding with an appropriate action and conversation

(including noting when interest wanes) are helping children

develop self-condence and an understanding that their actions

make a dierence. Educators can involve children in choosing

or creating learning experiences that are meaningful to them,

helping them establish and achieve challenging goals, and

reecting on their experiences and their learning. Educators can

also intentionally build bridges between children’s interests and

the subject matter knowledge that will serve as the foundation for

learning in later grades.

7 Children learn in an integrated fashion that cuts across

academic disciplines or subject areas. Because the

foundations of subject area knowledge are established in

early childhood, educators need subject-area knowledge,

an understanding of the learning progressions within

each subject area, and pedagogical knowledge about

teaching each subject area’s content eectively.

Based on their knowledge of what is meaningful and engaging

to each child, educators design the learning environment and its

activities to promote subject area knowledge across all content

areas as well as across all domains of development. Educators use

their knowledge of learning progressions for dierent subjects,

their understanding of common conceptions and misconceptions

at dierent points on the progressions, and their pedagogical

knowledge about each subject area to develop learning activities

that oer challenging but achievable goals for children that are

also meaningful and engaging. These activities will look very

dierent for infants and toddlers than for second- and third-

graders and from one community of learners to another, given

variations in culture and context. Across all levels and settings,

educators can help children observe and, over time, reect about

phenomena in the world around them, gain vocabulary, and build

their conceptual understanding of the content of subjects across

all disciplines.

Recognizing the value of the academic disciplines, an

interdisciplinary approach that considers multiple areas together

is typically more meaningful than teaching content areas

separately. This requires going beyond supercial connections.

It means “making rich connections among domain and subject

areas, but allowing each to retain its core conceptual, procedural,

and epistemological structures.”

It is, therefore, important

that educators have a good understanding of the core structures

(concepts and language) for all the academic subject areas so that

they can communicate them in appropriate ways to children.

Educators shape children’s conceptual development through

their use of language. For example, labeling objects helps young

children form conceptual categories; statements conveyed as

generic descriptions about a category are especially salient to

young children and, once learned, can be resistant to change.

It is also important for educators to monitor their language for

potential bias. For example, educators who frequently refer to

“boys” and “girls” rather than “children” emphasize binary gender

distinctions that exclude some children. Educators can also

encourage children’s continued exploration and discovery through

the words they use. For example, when given an object, children

are more likely to engage in creative explorations of that object

when they are provided with more open-ended guidance versus

when they are given specic information about what the object

was designed to do.

From infancy through age 8, proactively building children’s

conceptual and factual knowledge, including academic

vocabulary, is essential because knowledge is the primary driver of

comprehension. The more children (and adults) know, the better

their listening comprehension and, later, reading comprehension.

By building knowledge of the world in early childhood, educators

are laying the foundation that is critical for all future learning.

All subject matter can be taught in ways that are meaningful and

engaging for each child.

The notion that young children are

not ready for academic subject matter is a misunderstanding of

developmentally appropriate practice.

8 Development and learning advance when children

are challenged to achieve at a level just beyond their

current mastery and when they have many opportunities

to reect on and practice newly acquired skills.

Human beings, especially young children, are motivated to

understand or do what is just beyond their current understanding

or mastery. Drawing upon the strengths and resources each child

and family brings, early childhood educators create a rich learning

environment that stimulates that motivation and helps to extend

each child’s current skills, abilities, and interests. They make use

of strategies to promote children’s undertaking and mastering

of new and progressively more advanced challenges. They

also recognize the potential for implicit bias to lead to lowered

expectations, especially for children of color,

and actively work

to avoid such bias.

Educators contribute signicantly to the child’s development

by providing the support or assistance that allows the child to

succeed at a task that is just beyond their current level of skill

or understanding. This includes emotional support as well

as strategies such as pointing out salient details or providing

other cues that can help children make connections to previous

knowledge and experiences.

As children make this stretch to a

new level in a supportive context, they can go on to use the skill

independently and in a variety of contexts, laying the foundation

for the next challenge. Provision of such support, or scaolding,

is a key feature of eective teaching. Pairing children can be an

eective way to support peer learning in which children with

dierent abilities can scaold each other.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 13

Children need to feel successful in new tasks a signicant

proportion of the time to promote their motivation and

persistence.

Confronted by repeated failure, most children

will simply stop trying. Repeated opportunities to practice and

consolidate new skills and concepts are also essential for children

to reach the threshold of mastery at which they can go on to

use this knowledge or skill, applying it in new situations. Play

(especially in intentionally designed environments with carefully

selected materials) provides young children with opportunities to

engage in this type of practice.

Educators foster learning for a group of children by setting

challenging, achievable goals for each child, building on the

combined funds of knowledge and cultural assets of the children

in the group. Providing the right amount and type of scaolding

requires general knowledge of child development and learning,

including familiarity with the paths and sequences that children

are known to follow in specic skills, concepts, and abilities.

Also essential is deep knowledge of each child, based on what

the teacher has learned from close observation and from the

family about the individual child’s interests, skills, and abilities

and about practices of importance to the family. Both sets of

knowledge are critical to matching curriculum and teaching

experiences to each child’s emerging competencies in ways that

are challenging but not frustrating.

Encouraging children to reect on their experiences and learning

and to revisit concepts over time is also an important strategy for

educators. The curriculum should provide both breadth and depth

with multiple opportunities to revisit concepts and experiences,

rather than rapidly progressing through a wide but shallow set

of experiences. Picture books and other learning materials that

depict communities and situations relevant to children’s lives

can be useful starting points for such reection. Group projects

with documentation, including photos, videos, child artwork and

representations, child dictations, and/or children’s writing, are

also important tools for encouraging reection and for revisiting

concepts over time.

Tiered intervention approaches can be helpful in identifying

children who might benet from additional instruction or

support.

These approaches, often in collaboration with early

childhood special educators and early interventionists, are most

eective when they are implemented in a way that is continuous,

exible, dynamic, and focused on the range of critical skills and

prociencies children need to develop and to enable their full

participation in the classroom/group community.

9 Used responsibly and intentionally, technology

and interactive media can be valuable tools for

supporting children’s development and learning.

Young children live in a digital era in which technology and

interactive media are pervasive. Given rapid changes in the

types and uses of new media, the knowledge base of their eects

on children’s development and learning continues to grow

and shift. Emerging evidence suggests a number of cautions,

including concerns about negative associations between

excessive screen time and childhood obesity as well as negative

impacts on toddlers’ performance on measures of ne motor,

communication, and social skills.

There is no evidence that

development is enhanced when children younger than age 2

independently use devices with screen media.

Keeping these

cautions in mind, technology and interactive media can help

to support developmentally appropriate practice. For example,

technology and interactive media can facilitate communication

between families, children, and teachers. It can also support

learning, comprehension, and communication across language

dierences and provide adaptations that support inclusion of

children with disabilities. The use of digital media can facilitate

reection through documentation and formative assessment

by children, educators, and families. The use of media can also

provide isolated children (for example, children with health

problems that prevent them from participating in group settings

or those with less well-developed social skills) with opportunities

to engage eectively with peers.

Eective uses of technology and media by children are active,

hands-on, engaging, and empowering; give children control;

provide adaptive scaolds to help each child progress in skills

development at their individual pace; and are used as one of many

options to support children’s learning. Technology and interactive

media should expand children’s access to new content and new

skills; they should not replace opportunities for real, hands-on

experiences.

When truly integrated, uses of technology and

media become normal and transparent—the child or the educator

is focused on the activity or exploration itself, not the technology.

Readers are encouraged to review the NAEYC/Fred Rogers Center

position statement on the use of technology for more information

on this topic.

14 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate

Practice in Action: Using Knowledge of Child

Development and Learning in Context

Based on the principles outlined above, the following guidelines address decisions that early childhood

professionals make in six key and interrelated areas of practice: (1) creating a caring community of

learners; (2) engaging in reciprocal partnerships with families and fostering community connections;

(3) observing, documenting and assessing children’s development and learning; (4) teaching to enhance

each child’s development and learning; (5) planning and implementing an engaging curriculum to

achieve meaningful goals; and (6) demonstrating professionalism as an early childhood educator.

Generally consistent with previous editions of this statement, the six areas have been reworded and

reordered to reect consistency with the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood

Educators. These guidelines work hand in hand with the standards and competencies; they are also

based on the assumption that, as part of the sixth professional standard regarding professionalism,

educators are also advocating for policies and nancing that support the equitable implementation of

developmentally appropriate practice across all states and settings serving children birth through age

8. Finally, some of the guidelines are similarly reected in the recommendations for early childhood

educators embedded in the Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education position statement.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 15

1. Creating a Caring, Equitable Community of Learners

Because early childhood education settings are often among children’s rst communities outside

the home, the character of these communities is very inuential in children’s development.

Through their interactions, children learn how to treat others and how they can expect to be

treated. In developmentally appropriate practice, educators create and foster a community of

learners. The role of the community is to provide a physical, emotional, and cognitive environment

conducive to development and learning for each child. The foundation for the community is

consistent, positive, caring relationships between educators and other adults and children,

among children, among educators and colleagues, and between educators and families. Each

member of the learning community is valued for what they bring to the community; all members

are supported to consider and contribute to one another’s well-being and learning.

To create a caring, equitable community of learners, educators

make sure that the following occur for children from birth

through the primary grades.

A Each member of the community is valued by the

others and is recognized for the strengths they bring.

By observing and participating in the community, children

learn about themselves, their world, and how to develop

positive, constructive relationships with other people. Each

child has unique strengths, interests, and perspectives to

contribute. Children learn to acknowledge and respect

dierences of all kinds and to value each person. Children

with and without disabilities can learn from each other and

respect each other using this strengths-based approach.

Educators demonstrate their valuing and respect

for each child in dierent ways:

1. Educators pronounce and spell the child’s name in

accordance with the child’s and family’s preferences.

2. Educators acknowledge and accept the family

composition that each family denes.

3. Educators demonstrate ongoing interest in each child’s

unique knowledge, skills, and cultural and linguistic

experiences and recognize these as assets for learning.

B Relationships are nurtured with each child, and

educators facilitate the development of positive

relationships among children. Children construct

their understandings about the world around them through

interactions with other members of the community (both

adults and peers). Thus, early childhood educators actively

work to build their own relationships with each child as

well as foster the development of relationships among the

children. Educators regularly seek out opportunities for

extended conversations with each child, including those

with whom they do not share a language, through verbal

and nonverbal interactions. Opportunities to play together,

collaborate on investigations and projects, and talk with peers

and adults enhance children’s development and learning and

should be available to all children, with support as needed.

Interacting in small groups provides a context for children to

extend their thinking, practice emerging language skills, build

on one another’s ideas, and cooperate to solve problems.

(Also see guideline 2, “Engaging in reciprocal partnerships

with families and fostering community connections.”)

16 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

C Each member of the community respects and is

accountable to the others to behave in a way that

is conducive to the learning and well-being of all.

1. Educators help children develop responsibility and

self-regulation. Educators intentionally model and

teach children self-regulation and calming strategies.

Recognizing that behaviors reect children’s experiences

and needs, educators seek to understand a child’s

reasons for behaving in particular ways. Knowing

that responsibility and self-regulation develop with

experience and time, educators consider how to foster

such development in their interactions with each

child and in their curriculum planning. They work to

provide predictable, consistent routines (but not rigid

schedules with unnecessary transitions) and supportive

relationships for all children, taking into consideration

the range of current self-regulation abilities among the

children. They do not blame children or families for their

behavior but call on additional resources for support

as needed. They work to eliminate suspension and

expulsions as mechanisms for addressing challenging

behaviors. Educators also take care to reect on their

own behaviors and expectations and the ways in which

these may aect children’s behavior. For all young

children, including in K–3 classrooms, educators

recognize that children are continuing to learn and rene

behavior regulation. Educators implement systems

of support that help children practice self-regulation

and provide additional supports where needed. When

using behavioral systems to guide social and emotional

interactions in the early learning setting, educators

ensure that the systems acknowledge positive behaviors

rather than drawing attention to negative ones.

2. Educators are responsible for all children

under their supervision to ensure respectful

behaviors. They actively teach and model prosocial

behaviors. They monitor, anticipate, prevent, and

redirect behaviors not conducive to learning or

disrespectful of any member of the community.

3. Educators set clear and reasonable limits on children’s

behavior, nd ways to eectively communicate those

limits to all children, and apply them consistently.

Early childhood educators help children be accountable

to themselves and to others for their behavior. In the

case of preschool and older children, educators engage

children in developing their own community rules for

behavior. Educators understand that all behaviors

serve a purpose; they seek to understand what may

be leading to that behavior and help children learn

prosocial replacement behaviors when needed.

4. Educators listen to and acknowledge children’s feelings,

including frustrations, using words as well as nonverbal

communication techniques. Knowing that children often

communicate through their behavior, especially when

they are unable to verbalize their feelings, educators

seek to understand what the child may be trying to

communicate in any language. Educators respond

with respect in ways that children can understand,

guide children to resolve conicts, and model skills

that help children to solve their own problems.

5. Educators themselves demonstrate high levels of

responsibility and self-regulation in their interactions

with other adults (colleagues, family members) and with

children. This includes monitoring their own behaviors

for potential implicit biases or microaggressions on the

basis of race and ethnicity, gender, disability, or other

characteristics that unfairly target children or adults in

the early learning setting, undermine an individual’s

self-worth, or perpetuate negative stereotypes. They

also confront biased or stereotypical comments in

interactions among children and/or adults. When they

inadvertently engage in behavior that hurts or undermines

an individual’s self-worth, educators model how to

manage negative emotions and to repair relationships.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 17

D The physical environment protects the health and safety

of the learning community members, and it specically

supports young children’s physiological needs for play,

activity, sensory stimulation, fresh air, rest, and nourishment.

The daily schedule provides frequent opportunities

for self-directed play and active, physical movement,

regardless of the length of the program day or the ages of

the children. Children are provided opportunities for rest

as needed. Outdoor experiences, including opportunities

to interact with the natural world, are provided daily for

children of all ages. This includes daily periods of recess

for children through the primary grades. Recess is never

withheld as a punishment. Mealtimes are unhurried, and

conversation among children is encouraged during meals.

E Every eort is made to help each and every member

of the community feel psychologically safe and able

to focus on being and learning. The overall social and

emotional climate is welcoming and positive.

1. Educators monitor interactions among community

members (administrators, educators, families,

children), as well as their overall experiences,

striving to make sure that participants feel secure,

relaxed, and comfortable rather than disengaged,

frightened, worried, or unduly stressed.

2. Educators build on individual children’s funds

of knowledge,

interests, languages, and

experiences to foster each child’s enjoyment

of and engagement in learning.

3. Educators ensure that the environment is organized

in ways that support play and learning and that

create a positive group climate. Space, time, and

stimulation are modied to take into account children’s

individual needs and feelings of psychological safety.

Educators recognize that individual children may need

or benet from dierent levels of stimulation. They

avoid overly cluttered environments that may be too

stimulating. Flexibility and freedom of movement

predominate throughout the day. Although the

environment’s elements are dynamic and changing,

the overall structures and routines are predictable

and comprehensible from a child’s point of view.

4. Educators strive to make sure that each child hears

and sees their home language, culture, and family

experience reected in the daily interactions, activities,

and materials in the early learning setting. Each child’s

various social identities are armed in positive ways

that do not negatively impact any others. Stereotypical

thinking and messages are countered with opportunities

to engage in more sophisticated and accurate thinking.

5. Educators are prepared to recognize signs of stress

and trauma in young children and seek access to

early childhood mental health experts, supports, and

resources to provide healing-centered approaches to

assist children. Educators recognize that children who

have experienced trauma may need frequent, explicit, and

consistent reminders that they are psychologically and

physically safe. Educators also keep children’s resilience in

mind, knowing that simple actions like being consistently

warm and caring support healthy development for all

children—including those who have experienced trauma.

18 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

2. Engaging in Reciprocal Partnerships with Families

and Fostering Community Connections

Developmentally appropriate practice requires deep knowledge about each child,

including the context within which each child is living. Educators acquire much of this

knowledge through respectful, reciprocal relationships with children’s families. Across

all ages, families’ expertise about their own children is sought out and valued.

Educators who engage in developmentally appropriate

practice take responsibility for forming and maintaining

strong relationships with families and communities.

They recognize that the traditional models of “parent

involvement” or “parent education” are one-sided

approaches that fail to give educators the knowledge or

insights they need to provide learning experiences that are

fully responsive to each child’s needs and experiences.

The following descriptions of educators’ behavior indicate the

kinds of relationships that are developmentally appropriate

for children from birth through the primary grades, in which

family members and educators work together as members of the

learning community.

A Educators take responsibility for establishing

respectful, reciprocal relationships with and

among families. As they work to facilitate their own

relationships with families, educators also encourage and

support families to get to know each other, serve as resources

to each other, and collaborate within and outside of the

program. They strive to ensure mutual respect, cooperation,

and shared responsibility and to help negotiate conicts as

they work toward achievement of shared goals. (Also see

guideline 1, “Creating a caring community of learners.”)

B Educators work in collaborative partnerships with

families, seeking and maintaining regular, frequent,

two-way communication with them and recognizing

that the forms of communication may dier for

each family. Early childhood educators employ a variety of

communication methods and engagement skills, including

informal conversations when parents pick up and drop

o children, more formal conversations in teacher-family

conference settings, and reciprocal technology-mediated

communications, such as phone calls, texting, or emails.

When educators do not speak a family’s home language,

they enlist the help of community resources to provide

interpreters or use volunteers identied by the family.

The use of children as translators should be avoided.

C Educators welcome family members in the setting

and create multiple opportunities for family

participation. Families are oered multiple ways of

participating, including weighing in on any program decision

about their children’s care and education. If families cannot

communicate with educators during drop-os and pick-ups,

alternative means provide frequent, ongoing communication.

D Educators acknowledge a family’s choices and

goals for their child and respond with sensitivity

and respect to those preferences and concerns.

In the event of disagreements between the family and

the educator, educators listen carefully to the family’s

concerns and use the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct

and Statement of Commitment to guide their decision

making as they strive to nd mutually agreeable solutions.

E Educators and the family share with each other their

knowledge of the particular child and understanding

of child development and learning as part of

day-to-day and other forms of communication (e.g.,

family get-togethers, meetings, support groups).

Educators support families in ways that maximally promote

family decision-making capabilities and competence.

When communicating with families about their children,

educators stress children’s strengths and abilities and use

this information to support future instructional decisions.

F Educators involve families as a source of

information about the child (before program entry

and on an ongoing basis). They engage families in

the planning for their child, including teaching practices,

curriculum planning and implementation, and assessments.

G Educators take care to learn about the community in

which they work, and they use the community as a

resource across all aspects of program delivery. The

community serves as an important resource for implementing

the curriculum as well as a resource for linking families with a

range of services based on identied priorities and concerns.

Early childhood educators also look for ways that they can

contribute to the ongoing development of the community.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 19

3. Observing, Documenting, and Assessing

Children’s Development and Learning

Observing, documenting, and assessing each child’s development and learning are essential

processes for educators and programs to plan, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of the

experiences they provide to children. Assessment includes both formal and informal measures

as tools for monitoring children’s progress toward a program’s desired goals. Educators can be

intentional about helping children to progress when they know where each child is with respect

to learning goals. Formative assessment (measuring progress toward goals) and summative

assessment (measuring achievement at the end of a dened period or experience) are important.

Both need to be conducted in ways that are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically

responsive to authentically assess children’s learning. This means that not only must the methods

of assessment, both formal and informal, be developmentally, culturally, and linguistically

sensitive, but also the assessor must be aware of and work against the possibility of implicit and

explicit bias, for example through training, reection, and regular reviews of collected data.

Eective assessment of young children is challenging. The

complexity of children’s development and learning—including the

uneven nature of development and the likelihood of children fully

demonstrating their knowledge and skills in dierent contexts—

makes accurate and comprehensive assessment dicult. For

example, authentic assessment takes into consideration such

factors as a child’s facility in each language they speak and uses

assessors and settings that are familiar and comfortable for the

child. When standardized assessments are used for screening

or evaluative purposes, the measures should meet standards

of reliability and validity based on the characteristics of the

child being assessed. When these standards are not met, these

limitations must be carefully considered before using the results.

Using assessments in ways that do not support enhancing the

child’s education is not developmentally appropriate practice. Yet,

decisions regarding assessment practices are often outside of the

control of individual educators (also see Recommendations for

research, page 31). When educators are aware of inappropriate

assessment practices, they have a professional ethical

responsibility to make their concerns known, to advocate for more

appropriate practices, and, within their learning environment,

to minimize the adverse impact of inappropriate assessments on

young children and on instructional practices.

The following practices for observation, documentation, and

assessment are developmentally appropriate for children from

birth through the primary grades.

A Observation, documentation, and assessment

of young children’s progress and achievements

is ongoing, strategic, reective, and purposeful.

Educators embed assessment-related activities in the

curriculum and in daily routines to facilitate authentic

assessment and to make assessment an integral part of

professional practice. They create and take advantage of

unplanned opportunities to observe young children in

play and in spontaneous conversations and interactions,

in adult-structured assessment contexts as well as when

children are participating in a group activity and doing

an individual activity. Observations, documentations,

and the results of other formal and informal assessments

are used to inform the planning and implementing

of daily curriculum and experiences, to communicate

with the child’s family, and to evaluate and improve

educators’ and the program’s eectiveness. Especially

in K–3 classrooms, care must be taken to avoid overuse

of standardized assessments, which can cause stress

for young children and interfere with time for learning.

Educators limit the use of digitally-based assessments,

especially for young children who (appropriately)

should have limited exposure to screen media.

20 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

B Assessment focuses on children’s progress

toward developmental and educational goals. Such

goals should reect families’ input as well as children’s

background knowledge and experiences. They should be

informed by developmental milestones including use of

state early learning standards. Goals should be aspirational

and achievable and should foster a sense of pride and

accomplishment for educators, families, and children.

Children, educators, and families should have opportunities

to celebrate both small and large achievements, while

recognizing that all children need time to build mastery on

a current skill before progressing to the next challenge.

C A system is in place to collect, make sense of, and

use observations, documentation, and assessment

information to guide what goes on in the early

learning setting. Educators use this information in

planning curriculum and learning experiences and in

moment-to-moment interactions with children—that

is, educators continually engage in assessment for the

purpose of improving teaching and learning. Educators

also encourage children to use observation and, beginning

in the preschool years, documentation to reect on

their experiences and what they have learned.

D The methods of assessment are responsive to

the current developmental accomplishments,

language(s), and experiences of young children.

They recognize individual variation in learners and

allow children to demonstrate their competencies

in dierent ways. Methods appropriate to educators’

assessment of young children, therefore, include results of

their observations of children, clinical interviews, collections

of children’s work samples, and children’s performance

on authentic activities. For children who speak a language

the educators do not know, native speakers of the child’s

language such as family or community members may need

to be recruited to assist with the assessment process. A

plan should be in place for employing volunteer and paid

interpreters and translators as needed and providing them

with information about appropriate interactions with young

children and ethics and condentiality, as well as about the

features and purposes of the screening or assessment tool.

Once collected, the results are explained to families and

children (as appropriate) in order to extend the conversations

around what is collected, analyzed, and reected upon.

E Assessments are used only for the populations and

purposes for which they have been demonstrated

to produce reliable, valid information. If required

to use an assessment tool that has not been established as

reliable or valid for the characteristics of a given child or

for the intended use, educators recognize the limitations

of the ndings, strive to make sure they are not used in

high-stakes decisions, and advocate for a dierent measure.

F Decisions that have a major impact on children,

such as enrollment or placement, are made

in consultation with families. Such decisions

should be based on multiple sources of relevant

information, including that obtained from observations

of and interactions with children by educators,

family members, and specialists as needed.

G When a screening assessment identies a child

who may have a disability or individualized

learning or developmental needs, there is

appropriate follow-up, evaluation, and, if needed,

referral. Screening is used to identify issues needing

more thorough examination by those qualied to do

so; it is not used to diagnose or label children. Families

are involved as essential sources of information.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 21

4. Teaching to Enhance Each Child’s Development and Learning

Developmentally appropriate teaching practices encompass a wide range of skills and strategies

that are adapted to the age, development, individual characteristics, and the family and social

and cultural contexts of each child served. Grounded in the caring relationships that educators

nurture with each child and family as well as among all children and families (see guideline 1,

“Creating a caring community of learners”), these teaching practices are designed to foster

development and learning for each child across all domains and subject areas. Teaching practices

build on each child’s multiple assets and actively counter various forms of bias. Through their

intentional teaching, educators blend opportunities for each child to exercise choice and

agency within the context of a planned environment constructed to support specic learning

experiences and meaningful goals. Educators recognize that children are active constructors

of their own understanding of the world around them; they understand that children benet

from initiating and regulating their own learning activities and from interacting with peers.

Recognizing play as critical for children to experience joy

and wonder, early childhood educators incorporate frequent

opportunities for play in their teaching strategies. They plan

learning environments that provide a mix of self-directed

play, guided play, and direct instruction. Educators maximize

opportunities for children to choose the materials, playmates,

topics, and approaches they use throughout the day for all

children, birth through age 8. Educators support and extend

children’s play experiences by providing materials and resources

based on careful observation of children’s play choices. Adult-

guided activities provide for children’s active agency as educators

oer specic guidance and support to scaold and extend

children’s interest, engagement, and learning.

Direct instruction—for example, providing children with relevant

academic vocabulary, pointing out relationships, helping children

recognize specic phenomena, or suggesting an alternative

perspective—is an important tool for supporting children’s learning.

Its eectiveness is determined by the degree to which it extends

children’s interests and learning in meaningful ways and educators’

sensitivity to changes in children’s interest. Individually or in small

or large groups, across all activities—self-directed play, guided

play, direct instruction, and routines—the teacher is responsible

for ensuring that each child’s overall experiences are stimulating,

engaging, and developmentally, linguistically, and culturally

responsive across all domains of development and learning.

Promoting many opportunities for agency for each child is essential

to fullling this responsibility.

The following descriptions of educators’ actions illustrate teaching

practices that are developmentally appropriate for young children

from birth through the primary grades.

A Educators demonstrate and model their

commitment to a caring learning community

through their actions, attitudes, and curiosity.

They recognize that through their actions, they

are inuencing children’s lifelong dispositions,

condence, and approaches to learning.

B Educators use their knowledge of each child

and family to make learning experiences

meaningful, accessible, and responsive to each

and every child. Building on the relationships they

nurture with each child and family and between children

(see also guideline 1, “Creating a caring community

of learners”), educators design learning activities

that reect the lives and cultures of each child.

1. Educators incorporate and integrate a wide variety

of experiences, materials, equipment, and teaching

strategies to accommodate the range of children’s

individual dierences in development, languages, skills

and abilities, prior experiences, needs, and interests.

22 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

2. Educators, with the support of families, bring each child’s

home culture(s) and language(s) into the shared culture

of the learning community. They model recognition

and valuing of the unique contributions of the home

cultures and languages so that these contributions

can be recognized and valued by the other members

of the learning community. They strategically use the

child’s home or family language and cultural ways

of learning to enhance each child’s communication,

comprehension, self-expression, and learning. Educators

continually strive to support and sustain each child’s

connection with their family, languages, and cultures.

3. Educators provide all children opportunities to participate

in all activities and encourage children to be inclusive

in their behaviors and interactions with peers.

4. Educators are prepared to individualize their teaching

strategies to meet the specic needs of individual

children, including children with disabilities and children

whose learning is advanced, by building upon their

interests, knowledge, and skills. Educators use all the

strategies identied here and consult with appropriate

specialists and the child’s family; they see that each child

gets the adaptations and specialized services needed

for full inclusion as a member of the community and

that no child is penalized for their ability status.

C Educators eectively implement a comprehensive

curriculum so that each child attains individualized

goals across all domains (physical, social,

emotional, cognitive, linguistic, and general

learning competencies) and across all subject

areas (language and literacy, including second

language acquisition, mathematics, social studies,

science, art, music, physical education, and health).

Educators follow Universal Design for Learning principles

by proactively providing multiple means of engagement,

multiple means of representation, and multiple means

of action and expression.

Educators design experiences

that celebrate the diversity in the experiences and social

identities of each group of children and counter the biases

in society. They build upon the children’s combined

funds of knowledge to foster each child’s learning and

understanding. Educators design activities that follow the

predictable sequences in which children acquire specic

concepts, skills, and abilities and by building on prior

experiences and understandings. (Also see guideline

5, “Understanding and using content areas to plan and

implement an engaging curriculum designed to meet goals

that are important and meaningful for children, families,

and the community in the present as well as the future.”)

D Educators plan the environment, schedule,

and daily activities to promote each

child’s development and learning.

1. Educators arrange rsthand, meaningful experiences

that are cognitively and creatively stimulating,

invite exploration and investigation, and engage

children’s active, sustained involvement. They do this

by providing a rich variety of materials, challenges,

and ideas that are worthy of children’s attention and

that reect the funds of knowledge each child brings

to the setting. Materials are periodically rotated and

revisited to provide children with opportunities to

reect and re-engage with the learning experiences.

2. Educators consistently present children with

opportunities to make meaningful choices. Children

are encouraged to shape specic learning activities

and to identify projects that can be used to extend

their learning. Children are regularly provided with

opportunities for child-choice activity periods—

not simply as a reward for completing other work.

Educators assist and guide children who are not yet

able to enjoy and make good use of such periods.

3. Educators organize the daily and weekly schedules to

provide children with extended blocks of time in which

to engage in sustained investigation, exploration,

interaction, and play. Children are encouraged to

freely interact with peers, and collaborative learning

opportunities with peers are frequently used. Adults oer

questions to stimulate children’s thinking, introduce

related vocabulary, and provide specic suggestions

to scaold children’s thinking. As much as possible,

educators use multiple languages to support bilingual

and multilingual children and also use nonverbal means

of communication such as images and gestures.

4. Educators routinely provide experiences, materials,

and interactions to enable children to engage in play.

Play allows children to stretch their boundaries to the

fullest in their imagination, language, interaction, and

self-regulation, as well as to practice their newly acquired

skills. Play also provides an important window for

educators to observe children’s skills and understandings.

5. Educators create language-rich environments that

focus on the diversity and complexity of language

in children’s communities. Given the importance of

vocabulary for conceptual development and as the

key building blocks for academic subject areas, this is

especially crucial. Educators arm children’s use of home

dialects, vernaculars, and language as strengths as they

also support the development of academic English.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 23

E Educators possess and build on an extensive

repertoire of skills and teaching strategies. They know

how and when to choose among them to eectively promote

each child’s development and learning at that moment. Such

skills include the ability to adapt curriculum, activities, and

materials to ensure full participation of all children. These

strategies include but are not limited to acknowledging,

encouraging, giving specic feedback, modeling,

demonstrating, adding challenge, giving cues or other

assistance, providing information, and giving directions.

1. To help children develop agency, educators

encourage them to choose and plan their own

learning activities. Self-directed learning activities

are important for all young children, including those

in K–3 classrooms. Self-directed activities can engage

children in meaningful learning that is relevant to

all curriculum and applicable learning standards.

2. To stimulate children’s thinking and extend their

learning, educators pose problems, ask questions,

and make comments and suggestions.

3. To extend the range of children’s interests and

the scope of their thoughts, educators present

novel experiences and introduce stimulating

ideas, problems, experiences, or hypotheses.

4. To adjust the complexity and challenge of

activities to suit children’s skills and knowledge,

educators increase the challenge as children

gain competence and understanding or reduce

the complexity for those who struggle.

5. To strengthen children’s sense of competence and

condence as learners, motivation to persist, and

willingness to take risks, educators provide experiences

that build on a child’s funds of knowledge, are culturally

and linguistically responsive, and are designed for

each child to be challenged and genuinely successful.

6. To enhance children’s conceptual understanding,

early childhood educators use various strategies,

including conversation and documentation, which

encourage children to reect on and revisit their

experiences in the moment and over time.

7. To encourage and foster children’s development and

learning, educators avoid generic praise (“Good job!”)

and instead give specic feedback (“You got the same

number when you counted the beans again!”). They use

the home or family languages, images, or other forms of

non-verbal communication to be sure the child understands

the feedback. With frequent, timely, specic feedback,

educators help children evaluate their own learning.

8. Educators focus on what children can do rather than

what they can’t or don’t do. For example, a child who

responds to a question asked in academic English by

speaking in their home dialect is recognized for their

receptive language. Similarly, invented spellings or other

“errors” in children’s thinking or language are analyzed

for what they reveal of children’s current understanding.

F Educators know how and when to scaold

children’s learning. Based on their ongoing interactions

and knowledge of each child, educators provide just

enough assistance to enable each child to perform at a

skill level just beyond what the child can do on their own,

then gradually reduce the support as the child begins to

master the skill, setting the stage for the next challenge.

1. Educators recognize and respond to the reality that

in any group, children’s skills will vary and they will

need dierent levels of support. Educators also know

that any one child’s level of skill and need for support

will vary over time and in dierent circumstances.

2. Scaolding can take a variety of forms, such as

giving the child a hint, providing a cue, modeling

the skill, or adapting the materials and activities.

It can be provided in a variety of contexts, not only

in planned learning experiences but also in free

play, daily routines, and outdoor activities.

3. Peers can be eective providers of scaolding in

addition to educators. Peer learning can be an

eective mechanism to provide individual support

and assistance across all areas of development and

learning. Peer learning can be especially useful

for children who are bilingual or multilingual.

24 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

G Educators know how and when to strategically

use the various learning formats and contexts.

1. Educators understand that each major learning format or

context (for example, large group, small group, learning

center, routine) has its own characteristics, functions, and

value. They consider the characteristics of the learners in

choosing the most appropriate format, such as limiting

the use of large groups with very young children or of

groups led in a language not understood by all the children.

Educators recognize that they need to balance activities

that require attentive behavior with time for more active

movement. Circle time and large group instruction periods

are limited in length to match age-appropriate attention

span limits. Breaks for self-directed and active play are

provided throughout the day. Flexibility of participation is

provided to all children to accommodate individual needs.

2. Educators think carefully about which learning format

is best for helping children achieve a desired goal, given

the children’s ages, abilities, experiences, temperaments,

and other characteristics. Especially in the case of

large group activities, educators change formats when

attention wanes. In K–3 classrooms, educators ensure

that individual seatwork is used only when it is the

most eective format for meeting the learning objective.

They encourage collaborative learning through peer

interaction and provide frequent opportunities for

children to support each other’s learning in pairs and

small groups. Educators strive to provide opportunities

for physical activity throughout the day, including the

use of learning activities that incorporate movement.

3. Educators minimize time in transitions and waiting for

children to line up or be quiet. Educators who document

how children spend their time are often surprised at how

much time is spent in transitions, often in ways that do

little to support children’s development and learning.

Reducing the time and amount of full-group activities,

providing children with advance notice of the transition,

and incorporating songs, pretend play, and/or movement

into the transition can be useful strategies. Educators

strive to reduce the need for transitions through exible

schedules, strategic use of sta and volunteers, and

helping children take responsibility for their own learning.

H Educators dierentiate instructional approaches

to match each child’s interests, knowledge,

and skills. Children who need additional support

receive extended, enriched, and intensive learning

experiences, always building on the child’s current

interests, strengths, and cultural ways of knowing.

1. Educators take care to provide each child with

opportunities to be successful and to engage

in joyful learning. They work to avoid children

having frustrating or discouraging experiences that

lead to a negative association with schooling.

2. Regardless of their need for additional support,

all children are provided agency to the greatest

extent possible. Educators are highly intentional in

use of time, and they focus on key skills and abilities

through highly engaging, play-based experiences to

build on the assets of children and their families.

3. Recognizing the self-regulatory, linguistic,

cognitive, and social benets that play and active

self-direction aords, educators do not reduce or

eliminate play opportunities, recess, or any other

important community and inclusive activities for

children who need additional support to meet school

readiness/grade level or behavioral expectations.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 25

5. Planning and Implementing an Engaging

Curriculum to Achieve Meaningful Goals

The curriculum consists of the plans for the learning experiences through which children acquire

knowledge, skills, abilities, and understanding. Implementing a curriculum always yields outcomes

of some kind—but which outcomes those are and how a program achieves them are critical. In

developmentally appropriate practice, the curriculum helps young children achieve goals that

are meaningful because they are culturally and linguistically responsive and developmentally

and educationally signicant. The curriculum does this through learning experiences that

reect what is known about young children in general and about each child in particular.

Learning through play is a central component of curriculum, and it

incorporates strategies to extend learning through play across the

full age and grade span of early education. Ideally, the curriculum

is planned in a coordinated fashion across age and grade spans so

that children’s knowledge and skills are developed in a coherent,

aligned manner, with each age or grade span building on what was

learned previously. A well-designed developmentally and culturally

relevant curriculum avoids and counters cultural or individual bias

or stereotypes and fosters a positive learning disposition in each

area of the curriculum and in each child.

The idea of mirrors and windows

is useful for curriculum

development. The curriculum should provide mirrors so that

children see themselves, their families, and their communities

reected in the learning environment, materials, and activities.

The curriculum should also provide windows on the world so

that children learn about peoples, places, arts, sciences, and

so on that they would otherwise not encounter. In diverse

and inclusive learning communities, one child’s mirrors are

another child’s windows, making for wonderful opportunities for

collaborative learning.

Because children learn more in programs where there is a

knowledge-rich, well-rounded curriculum that is well planned

and implemented, it is important for every school and early

childhood program to have its curriculum in written form. Having

a written curriculum does not preclude the use of an emergent

curriculum based on children’s interests and experiences that

is also aligned with applicable early learning standards, and it

provides an organized framework through which educators can

ensure that the children’s learning experiences are consistent with

the program’s goals for the children. Use of a formal, validated

curriculum can be helpful, so long as educators have the exibility

to adapt units and activities to meet the interests and experiences

of each group of specic children. Rigid, narrowly dened,

skills-focused, and highly teacher-scripted curricula that do not

provide exibility for adapting to individual skills and interests

are not developmentally appropriate.

The following key factors, taken together, describe curriculum

planning that is developmentally appropriate for children from

birth through the primary grades.

A Desired goals that are important for young

children’s development and learning in

general and culturally and linguistically

responsive to children in particular have

been identied and clearly articulated.

1. Educators consider what children are expected to

know, understand, and be able to do when they

leave the setting. This includes across the domains of

physical, social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive

development and across the subject or content areas,

including language, literacy, mathematics, social studies,

science, art, music, physical education, and health.

2. Educators are thoroughly familiar with state early

learning standards or other mandates. They add to

these other goals missing from the existing standards.

3. Educators and administrators establish and regularly

update goals with input from all stakeholders, including

families. Goals are clearly dened for, communicated to,

and understood by all stakeholders, including families.

26 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

B The program has a comprehensive, eective

curriculum that targets the identied goals across

all domains of development and subject areas.

1. Whether or not educators participated in the

development of the curriculum, they familiarize

themselves with it and consider its comprehensiveness

in addressing all important goals.

2. When the program uses published curriculum

products, the selected products are developmentally,

culturally, and linguistically responsive for the

children served and provide exibility for educators

to make adaptations to meet the specic interests and

learning needs of the children they are teaching.

3. If educators develop the curriculum themselves, they

make certain it targets identied learning goals and

applicable early learning standards. They actively engage

families and communities to inform its development.

Educators use up-to-date resources from experts to ensure

that curriculum content is accurate and comprehensive.

C Educators use the curriculum framework in their

planning to make sure there is ample attention

to important learning goals and to enhance the

coherence of the overall experience for children.

1. Educators are familiar with the understandings and

skills in each domain (physical, social, emotional,

linguistic, and cognitive) that are key for the children in

their group. They know how development and learning

in one domain impacts the other domains and crosses

subject areas. They recognize that making sure the

curriculum is culturally and linguistically relevant for

each child is essential for supporting all development

and learning across all domains and subject areas.

2. In their planning and follow-through, educators use

the curriculum framework along with what they

know (from their observation, documentation, and

other assessment) about the children’s knowledge,

interests, progress, languages, and learning needs.

They carefully shape and adapt the experiences to

be responsive to each child and to enable each child

to reach the goals outlined in the curriculum.

3. In determining the sequence and pace of learning

experiences, educators consider the learning

progressions that children typically follow, including

the typical sequences in which skills and concepts

develop. To maximize language development, educators

recognize dierences in developmental progressions

for monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual children

and support the development of multilingualism.

Educators use these progressions with an eye toward

helping each child progress in all areas, and they

make adaptations as needed for individual children.

When children’s experiences have not matched the

expectations for schooling, educators can both work

to change inappropriate expectations and adapt the

curriculum to build on children’s strengths and help

them gain skills and knowledge. Such adaptations should

maintain children’s agency; children can be partners with

educators in guiding their learning, which reinforces

high expectations and beliefs (on the part of both the

child and the educator) in that child’s potential.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 27

D Educators make meaningful connections a priority

in the learning experiences they provide each

child. They understand that all learners, and certainly

young children, learn best when the concepts, language,

and skills they encounter are related to things they

know and care about, and when the new learnings are

themselves interconnected in meaningful, coherent ways.

1. Educators plan curriculum experiences that integrate

children’s learning. They integrate learning within

and across developmental domains (physical, social,

emotional, linguistic, and cognitive) and subject areas

(including language, literacy, mathematics, social studies,

science, art, music, physical education, and health).

2. Educators plan curriculum experiences to build on

the funds of knowledge of each child, family, and

community in order to oer culturally and linguistically

sustaining learning experiences. Educators build

on ideas and experiences that have meaning in the

children’s lives and are likely to interest them, in

recognition that developing and extending children’s

interests is particularly important when children’s

ability to focus their attention is in its early stages.

3. Educators plan curriculum experiences that follow

logical sequences and that allow for depth, focus,

and revisiting concepts. That is, learning sequences

allow children to spend sustained time with a more

select set of content areas rather than skimming

briey over a wide range of topics. Educators plan to

return to experiences in ways that facilitate children’s

memory and further understanding of concepts.

E Educators collaborate with those teaching in the

preceding and subsequent age groups or grade

levels, sharing information about children and

working to increase continuity and coherence

across ages and grades. They also work to protect the

integrity and appropriateness of practices at each level.

For example, educators advocate for continuity in the

curriculum that is coherent, consistent, and based on the

principles of developmentally appropriate practice.

F Although it will vary across the age span, a planned

and written curriculum is in place for all age

groups. Even if it is not called a curriculum, infant and

toddler educators plan for the ways in which routines

and experiences promote each child’s development and

learning. With infants and toddlers, desired goals will

focus heavily on fostering secure relationships with

caregivers and family members in ways that are culturally

and linguistically responsive. Although social, emotional,

and language development—including home languages as

much as possible—take center stage, these interactions and

experiences are also laying the foundation for vocabulary

and concepts that support later academic development

across all subject areas. For preschool, kindergarten, and

primary grades, the curriculum will deepen and extend

to reect children’s more complex knowledge and skills

across all subject areas. Continuing to provide culturally and

linguistically sustaining care and supporting all domains of

development as well as all subject areas remain essential.

28 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

6. Demonstrating Professionalism as An Early Childhood Educator

Although this position statement may offer information and support to many individuals engaged

in or interested in the support of early childhood development and learning, it is focused on early

childhood educators. Developmentally appropriate practice serves as the hallmark of the early

childhood education profession. Fully achieving these guidelines and effectively promoting all

young children’s development and learning depends on the establishment of a strong profession

with which all early childhood educators, working across all settings, identify. Educators use the

guidelines of the profession, including these guidelines, as they conduct themselves as members

of the profession and serve as informed advocates for young children and their families as well

as the profession itself. Standard 6 of the Professional Standards and Competencies for Early

Childhood Educators outlines specic expectations by which early childhood educators demonstrate

their professionalism. Readers are referred to this statement for more specic information.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 29

Recommendations for Implementing

Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Educators make decisions that result in developmentally appropriate practice within the context of their

specic program setting, a larger early childhood sector, and extended systems with institutionalized

policies and practices. To what extent educators can fully implement developmentally appropriate

practice depends, as efforts to advance equity also do, on decisions at many levels, including

program administration, higher education, professional development, research, and public policy.

Decisions about developmentally appropriate practice by early childhood educators are facilitated

when all aspects of the early childhood sector and overall system reect the tenets described

here to support the optimal development and learning of each and every child. The following

recommendations are offered in that spirit and connect to and reect many of the recommendations

highlighted in the Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education position statement.

30 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

1. Recommendations for Schools, Family Child

Care Homes, and Other Program Settings

The following recommendations focus on ways that all program settings can support educators

in implementing developmentally appropriate practice. In large programs, the leadership (e.g.,

directors, principals, and administrators) may be responsible for programmatic administrative aspects

discussed here while in small programs and family child care homes, the educator may hold these

responsibilities in addition to providing care of children and directing education for the program.

A Support educators’ access to higher education

and professional development opportunities

that allow them to build the knowledge, skills,

and dispositions identied in the Professional

Standards and Competencies for Early

Childhood Educators, and ensure they are

prepared to carry out each of these guidelines.

This may include providing coaching, mentoring,

planning time, and release time to support educators

in their ongoing professional development journeys.

B Support and incentivize professional development

for administrators, supervisors, and those

responsible for assessment and evaluation of early

childhood educators to ensure they understand

the principles and guidelines of developmentally

appropriate practice and use them to inform

decisions regarding program implementation.

C Strive to ensure that program policies facilitate and

support strong, continuous relationships between

teaching sta and children by oering working

conditions and compensation (wages and benets)

that attract and retain a diverse and qualied sta.

Policies should ensure continuity of care for children, with

groups and child-to-sta ratios that meet the profession’s

guidelines. Across all levels of seniority, sta should reect

the diversity (including race and ethnicity, language,

and gender) of the community and children served.

D Seek and maintain early learning program

accreditation based on systems that are built to

support developmentally appropriate practice.

E Strive to ensure that the school or program

provides equitable learning opportunities to all

children to help them achieve their full potential

and avoids the use of suspension or expulsion.

F Ensure that the curriculum promotes all domains

of development while providing a coherent and

exible framework that supports educators in

making adaptations to meet the unique interests

and needs of the children they are serving.

G Provide mentoring and coaching for educators

and administrators to encourage reection

and continuous learning about the children,

families, and communities served. Educators also

require ongoing opportunities to reect on their practice,

conduct teacher research, and extend and deepen their

repertoire of eective teaching strategies. Peer support

and coaching groups across age spans and grade levels

can be an important way to support educators’ use of

developmentally appropriate practices and support the

coherence and continuity of children’s learning experiences.

H Actively engage family members and the broader

community in all aspects of program planning

and implementation, recognizing and taking

into account the systemic inequities that can

make it dicult for members of traditionally

marginalized groups to participate.

I Cultivate relationships with community resources,

including local libraries, museums, public parks,

physical and mental health consultants, and

government services that can support the program

and families as well as strengthen civic connections.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 31

2. Recommendations for Higher Education and Adult Development

In addition to these recommendations, readers are encouraged to also refer

to the Unifying Framework for Early Childhood Education Profession and the

Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators.

A Adopt and align coursework to the Professional

Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood

Educators, with the appropriate leveling and with

emphasis on equity and diversity, as part of the

overall implementation of the Unifying Framework

for Early Childhood Education Profession.

B Prepare current and prospective early childhood

educators to understand and implement all

components of developmentally appropriate

practice and to provide equitable learning

opportunities for all young children. Ensure

that educators understand the systemic inequities

that have limited many children’s opportunities for

learning and that they are prepared to fully support

the optimal development and learning of each and

every child. Recruit and support teacher candidates

who reect the diversity of children and families.

C Ensure that clinical practicums, internships,

and apprenticeships for prospective educators

provide experiences working in various settings

(including schools, centers, and family child

care homes) that serve racially, linguistically,

culturally, and economically diverse groups

of children across all age groups, including

children with and without disabilities.

D Ensure that faculty in higher education programs

reect the diversity of children and families and that

they understand and embrace the principles and

guidelines of developmentally appropriate practices.

3. Recommendations for Policymakers

In addition to these recommendations, readers are encouraged to also refer to

the Unifying Framework for Early Childhood Education Profession and the NAEYC

position statement Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education .

A Ensure that all those working directly with

children in early childhood settings, from birth

through age 8, have equitable, aordable access

to high-quality professional preparation required

to meet the standards and competencies at all

professional designations. This may include providing

comprehensive scholarships, loan forgiveness, and supports

to early childhood educators working in all settings.

B Provide adequate funding to ensure all children

have equitable access to high-quality early

childhood programs that meet these guidelines

and follow other guidelines established by the

profession, including small class/group sizes

and sucient numbers of well-prepared and

well-compensated teaching sta to provide the

individualized attention needed to implement

these guidelines eectively (and as stipulated in

the NAEYC Early Learning Program Standards).

C Recognize the limitations of accountability

systems that narrowly focus on skill-based

assessments and revise policies accordingly.

Assessment policies should stipulate the use of authentic

assessments that are developmentally, culturally, and

linguistically appropriate for the children being assessed

and that only use valid and reliable tools designed for a

purpose consistent with the intent of the assessment.

Assessments should be tied to children’s daily activities,

supported by professional development, and inclusive

of families; they should be purposefully used to make

sound decisions about teaching and learning, identify

signicant concerns that may require focused intervention

for individual children, and help programs improve

their educational and developmental interventions.

D Provide more equitable learning opportunities

for all young children, recognizing the need for

comprehensive services for families. Address the

historical inequities in housing, employment, acquisition

of wealth, transportation, personal safety, and health care

that directly impact children’s development and learning.

32 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

4. Recommendations for Research

Much remains to be learned about how to maximize each child’s development

and learning. Important areas for further study including the following.

A Identify which instructional strategies (and

other characteristics of early childhood

programs) work most eectively for which

children under which circumstances.

B Identify strategies by which educators can

recognize and eectively address their

implicit biases to provide more equitable

learning opportunities for all children.

C Develop assessment methodologies that

fully capture the complexity and diversity

of children’s development and learning in

authentic, reliable, and valid ways that consider

multiple aspects of children’s identities and

reect various cultural ways of learning.

D Continue to explore various dimensions of young

children’s development and learning, teaching

quality, dimensions of eective teaching, and the

ways in which these play out in dierent social

and cultural contexts. Because the knowledge base is

constantly growing, further applied research is needed

to revise and rene this denition of developmentally

appropriate practice. The research community plays

an important role in leading and synthesizing research

on child development and learning across multiple

social, cultural, and linguistic contexts and across

specic educational settings that can both inform and be

informed by the practices of early childhood educators.

E Identify areas of further knowledge needed to

help monolingual and multilingual teachers

understand how and why to adapt strategies

and environments to meet the needs of children

who are learning more than one language.

Conclusion

Since the release of Minimum Essentials for Nursery Education

in 1929 (shortly after the founding of NAEYC’s predecessor

organization), this association has connected practice, policy,

and research as it has worked toward the goal of improving the

quality of early childhood education services for young children.

While many of the recommendations have changed considerably

over the years, the primary focus remains the same: NAEYC

emphasizes the importance of the relationships between children

and well-prepared early childhood educators who understand

and can eectively support all domains of child development and

learning as they nurture and strengthen connections with the

child’s family and community. We continue to rene the ways in

which we describe how developmentally appropriate practices

can recognize and support the diversity and complexity of human

development and promote more equitable learning opportunities

for each and every young child. Over time, with more research

and evidence based on practice, further renements will be

made to this statement. What will not change is the overarching

goal of ensuring that all young children have equitable access to

developmentally appropriate, high-quality early learning.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 33

Appendix A: History and Context

NAEYC released its original position statement on

developmentally appropriate practice in the mid-1980s in

response to two specic issues. First, as the number of public

prekindergarten programs began to grow rapidly, so too did

concerns about inappropriate teaching practices and expectations

for preschool and kindergarten children. Second, NAEYC had

recently launched its national accreditation system for early

learning programs. While the accreditation criteria

frequently

referenced the term “developmentally appropriate,” initial

program visits quickly revealed wide variation in how the term

was interpreted. The original statement on developmentally

appropriate practice focused on 4- and 5-year-olds

but was

soon expanded to address birth through age 8.

Both the original

statement and the expansion helped to build consensus on the

meaning of the term within the eld and provided a denition for

educators to share with families, policymakers, and others.

NAEYC has regularly updated and rearmed its position

statement on developmentally appropriate practice,

and the term

continues to be widely used within and beyond the early childhood

eld. Each edition has reected the context and research of its

time, striving to correct common misinterpretations and to

disseminate current understandings based on emerging science

and professional knowledge.

In many ways, the overriding issue that drove the adoption of

the original statement remains. Far too few young children,

birth through age 8, consistently participate in high-quality early

childhood education experiences that optimally promote their

development and learning. Indeed, while the developmental

science promotes an understanding of early childhood education

as a period encompassing the years from birth through age 8,

early childhood education and primary or elementary education

are eectively separated in practice. Teaching practices and

expectations for young children too often do not reect the most

advanced science regarding creating an eective match between

the learning environment and the learner in early childhood

education settings.

Although there has been considerable progress in building public

understanding and support for the importance of the early

childhood years, a consistent professional framework—across

all roles and settings in which early childhood educators work—

remains to be implemented. The lack of a shared, consistent

professional framework has meant that many educators working

with children birth through age 8 are neither eectively prepared

nor adequately compensated. This lack of a professional framework

has also contributed to inappropriate instructional practices

and expectations for children, by many educators as well as by

administrators, families, and the public at large. Additionally, since

the statement was last revised a decade ago, new information and

understandings prompt the need to update the denition of the

term and to correct misinterpretations that have led to its misuse.

Notably, over the past few years, the Power to the Profession

initiative (P2P) has established the Unifying Framework

for the Early Childhood Education Profession that denes a

strong, diverse, and eective early childhood profession. As

one part of the framework, revised Professional Standards and

Competencies for Early Childhood Educators have been dened.

These standards and competencies set forth expectations for

what all early childhood educators should know and be able to

do; they also dene key responsibilities across multiple levels of

the profession. At the time of this statement’s publication, the

work is moving towards adoption, adaptation, alignment, and

implementation of recommendations in state and federal policy.

When NAEYC published its rst position statement on

developmentally appropriate practice, there were very few

national groups focused on early childhood education. Since

then, the number of organizations and initiatives, both public

and private, in this space has grown exponentially. NAEYC is

proud to collaborate with these partners to advance our shared

goals for children, families, and the early childhood profession.

These organizations and initiatives have also contributed to

the growing knowledge base related to child development

and early education. In the past ve years alone, a number of

inuential national reports have focused on child development,

learning, and education, with important implications for dening

high quality in early childhood education. Among them are

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8:

A Unifying Foundation, published by the Institute of Medicine

and National Research Council in 2015 and three reports

published between 2016 and 2018 by the National Academies

of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—Parenting Matters:

Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0–8, Promoting the

Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English:

Promising Futures, and How People Learn II: Learners,

Contexts, and Cultures. In addition, the Aspen Institute National

Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development

published A Nation at Hope in 2019. Each of these reports

provides an extensive literature review that helped to inform the

updates to this statement.

34 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Reframing “Best” Practice

Unlike previous editions, this revision purposefully does not use

the term “best practice.” Rather, quality practices informed by

evidence, research, and professional judgement are referred to

as guidelines for early childhood educators’ professional practice

and are directly aligned to the Professional Standards and

Competencies for Early Childhood Educators. This reframing

reects the concern that, especially when applied to specic

practices, ‘best’ has often been used in the United States to reect

the dominant culture’s assumptions. The dominant culture

within the U.S. has historically and generally speaking been

that of white, middle-class, heterosexual, Protestant people of

northern European descent. Practices based on specic cultural

assumptions without sucient consideration of the wide variation

in individual, social, and cultural contexts can create inherent

bias. Educators who rely on the notion of a single “best” practice

often make assumptions based on their own experiences, which

may not have involved extensive experiences with a variety

of populations. These assumptions can be biased if they do

not fully consider the specic abilities, interests, experiences,

and motivations of a particular child or their family’s culture,

preferences, values, and child-rearing practices when determining

the most appropriate practice for that child.

This point highlights the complexity of the decision-making process

that early childhood educators must engage in each day for each

child. Educators must be able to gather the information needed

from the child and family to determine the most appropriate

practice, articulate why it was chosen, and continue to be open

to gathering new information—from the child, family, and the

professional community—to assess its success and reect on

what adaptations may be needed moving forward. In this sense,

“best” practice does not represent a single practice; what’s best is a

dynamic and creative set of practices that embrace and build on the

varied assets children bring to the learning community.

The nature of children’s skills and abilities, experiences, languages

(including dialects), and cultures is likely to vary greatly within

any single group of young children and over time. Early childhood

educators must have an extensive repertoire of skills and a

dynamic knowledge base to make decisions, sometimes balancing

what at rst appear to be contradictory demands, in order to

address this wide range of diversity. This concept is not new to

developmentally appropriate practice (described as “both/and”

approaches to decision making in the 1996 and 2009 editions),

but we highlight it here in an eort to reduce the continued

misuse of developmentally appropriate practice, in which

dominant-culture perspectives are equated to “best” practice.

Continuity and Change in This Revision

In many ways, this revision arms the core concepts of

developmentally appropriate practice, with relatively few changes

since the 1996 edition. At the same time, this revised statement

marks a profound departure requiring signicant changes in

current professional understanding and practice. How can both

statements be true? First, NAEYC continues to underscore three

core considerations in developmentally appropriate practice—

the knowledge that educators must rely on as they intentionally

make decisions each day to guide children’s development and

learning toward challenging yet achievable goals. These include

(1) knowledge of principles of child development and learning

that enable early childhood educators to make general predictions

about what experiences are likely to be most enriching for

children; (2) knowledge about each child as an individual and the

implications for how best to eectively adapt and be responsive

to individual variation; and (3) knowledge about the social and

cultural contexts in which each child lives—including family and

community values, expectations, and linguistic conventions—

that educators must strive to understand in order to ensure that

learning experiences in the program or school are meaningful,

relevant, and respectful for each child and family.

In the past, however, dierences in social and cultural contexts

were identied as decits and gaps rather than assets or strengths

to be built upon. Additionally, the implications of the educator’s

personal and professional social and cultural contexts and of the

program setting have largely been ignored. This revised statement

reects an equity lens that underscores these two important

aspects in the revised core considerations:

› The principles of child development and learning

acknowledge the critical role of social and cultural contexts

and the fact that there is greater variation among the

“universals” of development than previously recognized.

› Understanding of the social and cultural contexts applies not

only to children but also to educators and to the program

setting. It is essential to recognize that educators and

administrators bring their own social and cultural contexts

to bear in their decision making, and they must be aware of

the implications of their contexts and associated biases—

both implicit and explicit—to avoid taking actions that harm

rather than support each child’s development and learning.

These changes are especially important given the growing

racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity of the domestic

and global populations. They are consistent with the NAEYC

position statement on Advancing Equity in Early Childhood

Education and are reected in the revised principles of child

development and learning and guidelines for practice within

this position statement.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 35

Appendix B: Glossary

ability—The means or skills to do something. In this position

statement, we use the term “ability” more broadly than the traditional

focus on cognition or psychometric properties to apply across all

domains of development. We focus and build on each child’s abilities,

strengths, and interests, acknowledging disabilities and developmental

delays while avoiding ableism (see also disability below).

adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—“Potentially

traumatic events that occur in childhood. Also included

are aspects of the child’s environment that can undermine

their sense of safety, stability, and bonding.”

agency—A person’s ability to make choices and inuence events. In this

position statement, we emphasize each child’s agency, especially a child’s

ability to make choices and inuence events in the context of learning

activities, also referred to as autonomy or child-directed learning.

80, 81

assessment—A systematic procedure for obtaining information

from observations, interviews, portfolios, projects, and other

sources, which is used to make informed judgments about

learners’ characteristics, understanding, and development to

implement improved curriculum and teaching practices.

› authentic assessment. Age-appropriate approaches and culturally

relevant assessment in a language the child understands—for

infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and children in early grades,

across developmental domains and curriculum areas.

› formal and informal assessment. Formal assessment is

cumulative and is used to measure what a student has learned.

It includes standardized testing, screenings, and diagnostic

evaluation. Informal assessment is ongoing and includes

children’s work samples and quizzes and teachers’ anecdotal

notes/records, observations, audio and video recordings.

› formative assessment and summative assessment. Used

to inform and modify real-time instruction to improve

student outcomes, formative assessment refers to the

teacher practice of monitoring student learning. Summative

assessment takes place at the end of the instructional period

to measure student learning or concept retention.

bias—Attitude or stereotypes that favor one group over another:

› explicit biases. Conscious beliefs and stereotypes that

aect one’s understanding, actions, and decisions.

› implicit biases. Beliefs that aect one’s understanding,

actions, and decisions but in an unconscious manner.

Implicit biases reect an individual’s socialization and

experiences within broader systemic structures that work to

perpetuate existing systems of privilege and oppression.

› anti-bias. An approach to education that explicitly

works to end all forms of bias and discrimination.

candidate—Refers to a student who is a candidate for

completion in an early childhood educator professional

preparation program. In some cases, these candidates are

also candidates for professional licensure or certication.

child observation—Observation of a child to gather

information on the child’s development, behavior,

levels of learning, interests, and preferences.

commonality—The current research and understandings of

processes of child development and learning that apply to all children,

including the understanding that all development and learning occur

within specic social, cultural, linguistic, and historical contexts.

competencies—The knowledge, skills, and dispositions

necessary to support high-quality practice across all early

childhood education sectors, settings, and roles.

content knowledge—The knowledge of subject areas

in the early childhood curriculum to be taught and the

ability to implement eective instructional strategies.

context—The conditions in which something exists or occurs.

This position statement recognizes the interconnectedness of

many contexts (e.g. societal, cultural, historical, family, learning

environments) and their inuences on young children.

continuity of care—A term used to describe programming

and policies that ensure that a child and his or her family are

consistently engaged in high-quality early learning experiences

through a stable relationship with a caregiver who is sensitive

and responsive to the young child’s signals and needs.

culture—Patterns of beliefs, practices, and traditions associated

with a particular group of people. Culture is increasingly

understood as inseparable from development.

Individuals

both learn from and contribute to the culture of the groups to

which they belong. Cultures evolve over time, reecting the lived

experiences of their members in particular times and places.

culturally relevant—Culturally relevant curriculum and practice

emphasize content and interactions that are meaningful to the social

and cultural norms, traditions, values, and experiences of the learners.

culturally responsive—“A culturally responsive teaching approach

values all children’s cultures and experiences and uses them as a

springboard for learning. A culturally responsive early childhood

teacher learns about others’ values, traditions, and ways of thinking.”

curriculum—The knowledge, skills, abilities, and understanding

children are to acquire and the plans for the learning experiences

through which their acquisition occurs. In developmentally

appropriate practice, the curriculum helps young children achieve

goals that are developmentally and educationally signicant.

developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)—Refers

to a framework of principles and guidelines for practice that

promotes young children’s optimal learning and development.

DAP is a way of framing a teacher’s intentional decision making.

It begins with three Core Considerations: (1) what is known about

general processes of child development and learning; (2) what

is known about the child as an individual who is a member of a

particular family and community; and (3) what is known about

the social and cultural contexts in which the learning occurs.

disability or developmental delay—Legally dened for young

children under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),

disabilities include intellectual disability; hearing, speech or language,

visual, and/or orthopedic impairment; autism; and traumatic brain

injury. Under IDEA, states dene developmental delays to include

delays in physical, cognitive, communication, social or emotional,

or adaptive development. These legal denitions are important for

determining access to early intervention and early childhood special

education services. The consequences of the denition can vary based

on the degree to which they are seen as variations in children’s assets

or the degree to which they are seen as decits. (See also ability.)

36 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

dispositions—Individual attitudes, beliefs, values, habits, and

tendencies toward particular actions. Professional dispositions are

considered important for eective work in a specic profession and

are expected of all members of that profession. Critical dispositions

for educators have been dened in the CCSSO’s Interstate Teacher

Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standards

and in the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

(NBPTS). NBPTS dispositions for early childhood educators

include collaboration, respect, integrity, honesty, fairness, and

compassion; educators with these characteristics promote equity,

fairness, and appreciation of diversity in their classrooms.

diversity—Variations among individuals, as well as within and

across groups of individuals, in terms of their backgrounds and

lived experiences. These experiences are related to social identities,

including race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identity

and expression, social and economic status, religion, ability status, and

country of origin. The terms diverse and diversity are sometimes used

as euphemisms for non-white. NAEYC specically rejects this usage

which implies Whiteness is the norm against which diversity is dened.

early childhood—The rst period in child development,

beginning at birth. Although developmental periods do not rigidly

correspond to chronological age, early childhood is generally

dened as including all children from birth through age 8.

early childhood education (ECE)—A term dened

using the developmental denition of birth through

approximately age 8, regardless of programmatic, regulatory,

funding, or delivery sectors or mechanisms.

early childhood educator—An individual who cares for and

promotes the learning, development, and well-being of children

birth through age 8 in all early childhood education settings,

while meeting the qualications of the profession and having

mastery of its specialized knowledge, skills, and competencies.

early childhood education profession—Members of the

profession care for and promote the learning, development,

and well-being of children birth through age 8 to establish a

foundation for lifelong learning and success. Early childhood

educator professional preparation programs prepare educators

to be accountable for the following responsibilities:

› Planning and implementing intentional, developmentally

appropriate learning experiences that promote the social and

emotional development, physical development, health, cognitive

development, and general learning competencies of each child

› Establishing and maintaining a safe, caring,

inclusive, and healthy learning environment

› Observing, documenting and assessing children’s learning and

development using guidelines established by the profession

› Developing reciprocal, culturally responsive relationships

with children’s families and communities

› Developing strong positive relationships

with the young children they serve

› Advocating for the needs of children and their families

› Advancing and advocating for an equitable, diverse,

and eective early childhood education profession

› Engaging in reective practice and continuous learning

early learning settings—These include programs serving children

from birth through age 8. Setting refers to the locations in which

early childhood education takes place—child care centers, child care

homes, elementary schools, religious-based centers and many others.

equity—The state that would be achieved if individuals fared the same

way in society regardless of race, gender, class, language, disability, or

any other social or cultural characteristic. In practice, equity means all

children and families receive necessary supports in a timely fashion so

they can develop their full intellectual, social, and physical potential.

Equity is not the same as equality. Equal treatment given to

individuals at unequal starting points is inequitable. Instead

of equal treatment, NAEYC aims for equal opportunity. This

requires considering individuals’ and groups’ starting points,

then distributing resources equitably (not equally) to meet needs.

Attempting to achieve equality of opportunity without considering

historic and present inequities is ineective, unjust, and unfair.

funds of knowledge—Essential cultural practices and bodies of

knowledge embedded in the daily practices and routines of families.

inclusion—Embodied by the values, policies, and practices that

support the right of every infant and young child and their family,

regardless of ability, to participate in a broad range of activities

and contexts as full members of families, communities, and

society. The desired results of inclusive experiences for children

with and without disabilities and their families include a sense

of belonging and membership, positive social relationships and

friendships, and development and learning to help them reach

their full potential. Although the traditional focus of inclusion

has been on addressing the exclusion of children with disabilities,

full inclusion seeks to promote justice by ensuring equitable

participation of all historically marginalized children.

individuality—The characteristics and experiences unique to each

child, within the context of their family and community, that have

implications for how best to support their development and learning.

interactive media—Digital and analog materials, including

software programs, applications (apps), broadcast and streaming

media, some children’s television programming, e-books,

the internet, and other forms of content designed to facilitate

active and creative use by young children and to encourage

social engagement with other children and adults.

microaggressions—Everyday verbal, nonverbal, or environmental

messages that implicitly contain a negative stereotype or are in

some way dehumanizing or othering. These hidden messages

serve to invalidate the recipients’ group identity, to question their

experience, to threaten them, or to demean them on a personal

or group level. Microaggressions may result from implicit or

explicit biases. People who commit microaggressions may view

their remarks as casual observations or even compliments

and may not recognize the harm they can cause.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 37

norm, normative—The denition of certain actions, identities,

and outcomes as the standard (“the norm” or “normal”), with

everything else as outside the norm. For example, the terms White

normativity or heteronormative refer to instances in which

Whiteness and heterosexuality are considered normal or preferred.

Such norms wrongly suggest that all other races, ethnicities and

sexual orientations are outside the norm or are less preferable. Art

activities focused on lling out a family tree, with designated spaces

for “mommy,” “daddy,” “grandma,” and “grandpa,” for example, may

assume a two-parent, heterosexual household as the normative

family structure. (While some research-based norms provide

guidance regarding healthy child development and appropriate

educational activities and expectations, these norms have too often

been derived through research that has only or primarily included

nonrepresentative samples of children or has been conducted

primarily by nonrepresentative researchers. Additional research, by a

more representative selection of researchers and theorists, is needed to

develop new norms that will support equitably educating all children.)

pedagogical content knowledge—Knowledge of academic

disciplines and the ability to create meaningful learning

experiences for each child by using eective teaching strategies.

play—A universal, innate, and essential human activity that

children engage in for pleasure, enjoyment, and recreation. Play,

solitary or social, begins during infancy and develops in increasing

complexity through childhood. Play integrates and supports

children’s development and learning across cognitive, physical,

social, and emotional domains, and across curriculum content

areas. Play can lead to inquiry and discovery and facilitate future

learning. While there are multiple and evolving theories about

the types and stages of play, as well as about the teacher’s role in

play, the professions of developmental psychology and of early

childhood education have long recognized play as essential for

young children’s development of symbolic and representational

thinking, construction and organization of mental concepts, social

expression and communication, imagination, and problem-solving.

position statement—Adopted by the Governing Board to state the

NAEYC’s positions on issues related to early childhood education

practice, policy, and/or professional development for which there

are controversial or critical opinions. Position statements are

developed through a consensus-building approach that seeks to

convene diverse perspectives and areas of expertise related to the

issue and provide opportunities for members and others to provide

input and feedback. (NAEYC, About Position Statements, NAEYC.

org/resources/position-statements/about-position-statements).

professional development—A continuum of learning and

support opportunities designed to prepare individuals with the

knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions needed in a specic

profession. Professional development for early childhood educators

includes both professional preparation and ongoing professional

development; training, education, and technical assistance;

university/college credit-bearing coursework, preservice and

in-service training sessions; observation with feedback from

a colleague and peer learning communities; and mentoring,

coaching, and other forms of job-related technical assistance.

professional judgement—The application of professional

knowledge, professional experience, and ethical standards in context

with understanding, analysis, and reection. Early childhood educators

exercise professional judgement to make intentional, informed

decisions about appropriate practice in specic circumstances.

professional preparation program—A program that

culminates in a degree, certicate, or credential that provides

candidates with the appropriate level of mastery of the agreed-upon

standards and competencies. Early childhood educator professional

preparation programs are responsible for preparing educators

serving children birth through age 8 across settings.

race—A social construct that categorizes and ranks groups of

people on the basis of skin color and other physical features. The

scientic consensus is that using the social construct of race to divide

people into distinct and dierent groups has no biological basis.

reciprocal relationships—In reciprocal relationships

between practitioners and families, there is a mutual

respect, cooperation, shared responsibilities, and negotiation

of conicts to achieve shared goals for children.

standards—The national standards formally adopted by a

profession to dene the essentials of high-quality practice

for all members of the profession. They may be applied in the

development of national accreditation, state program approval,

individual licensing, and other aspects of professional development

systems. They provide the unifying framework for core as well

as specialized or advanced knowledge and competencies.

structural inequities—The systemic disadvantage of one or

more social groups compared to systemic advantage for other

groups with which they coexist. The term encompasses policy, law,

governance, and culture and refers to race, ethnicity, gender or

gender identity, class, sexual orientation, and other domains.

technology—Broadly dened as anything human-made that is

used to solve a problem or fulll a desire. Technology can be an

object, a system, or a process that results in the modication of

the natural world to meet human needs and wants. Additionally,

technology includes digital tools like computers, tablets, apps,

e-readers, smartphones, TVs, DVDs and music players, handheld

games, cameras, digital microscopes, interactive whiteboards,

electronic toys, non-screen-based tangible technology, and simple

robots. Familiar analog tools found in early childhood classrooms

include audio recorders, VHS and cassette players, record players,

headphones, crayons and pencils, scissors, rulers, blocks, and

magnifying glasses. Social media, email, video conferencing,

cloud collaboration tools, e-portfolios, blogs, pod casts, and other

methods of communication are used by young children.

tiered intervention approaches—“also called response-to-

intervention models, have been used to stimulate the learning of

children in the areas of reading, mathematics, and socioemotional

development. These approaches make use of ongoing formative

assessment to determine which children have mastered specic

skills or knowledge and which might benet from additional,

more intensive instruction and learning opportunities.”

100

Universal Design—A concept that can be used to support access

to environments in many dierent types of settings through the

removal of physical and structural barriers. Universal Design

for Learning (UDL) reects practices that provide multiple and

varied formats for instruction and learning. UDL principles and

practices help to ensure that every young child has access to

learning environments, to typical home or educational routines

and activities, and to the general education curriculum.

young children—Refers to children in the period of early

childhood development, from birth through approximately age

8. Although developmental periods do not rigidly correspond

to chronological age, early childhood is generally dened

as including all children from birth through age 8.

38 | DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE

Appendix C: Acknowledgements

Informed by and reective of the needs and strengths expressed by early childhood educators

themselves, the leaders listed on this page contributed invaluable time, expertise, and skill to support

the development of the Developmentally Appropriate Practice position statement. They were also

responsible for the development of the Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education position

statement that was published in September 2019. The staff and Governing Board at NAEYC are

deeply grateful for their extraordinary contributions and leadership. NAEYC also thanks the many

NAEYC members and others who provided input and feedback as this statement was developed.

Iliana Alanís,* University of Texas San Antonio

Chris Amirault, Tulsa Educare, Inc. (OK)

Amy Blessing, Malpass Corner Elementary School (NC)

Garnett S. Booker III, Eagle Academy

Public Charter School (DC)

Anthony Broughton,* Clain University (SC)

Isauro M. Escamilla Calan,* Las Americas

Early Education School (CA)

Dina C. Castro,* University of North Texas

Lillian Durán, University of Oregon

Linda M. Espinosa, University of Missouri

Kelly Hantak,* University of Missouri Kansas City

Elisa Huss-Hage,* Owens Community College (OH)

Iheoma U. Iruka, HighScope Educational

Research Foundation (MI)

Tamara Johnson,* Malaika Early Learning Center (WI)

Sarah LeMoine, ZERO TO THREE (DC)

Megan Pamela Ruth Madison,* Center for

Racial Justice in Education (NY)

Ben Mardell, Harvard University (MA)

Lauren E. Mueller, City of St. Charles School District (MO)

Krista Murphy,* Orange County Department of Education (CA)

Bridget Murray, Henderson Community College (KY)

Alissa Mwenelupembe,* Ball State University (IN)

Nichole Parks,* Leading for Children (AR)

Yohana Quiroz,* Felton Institute (CA)

Hakim Rashid, Howard University (DC)

Aisha Ray, Erikson Institute (IL)

Jeanne L. Reid, Teachers College, Columbia University (NY)

Shannon Riley-Ayers, The Nicholson Foundation (NJ)

Nicol Russell,* Teaching Strategies, LLC (AZ)

Christine M. Snyder, High Scope Educational

Research Foundation (MI)

Jan Stevenson,* Georgia Dept. of Education/

Division for Special Education

Crystal Swank, Truckee Meadows Community College (NV)

Ruby Takanishi, New America (NY)

Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, First Light

Education Project, LLC (CO)

Marlene Zepeda, California State University – Los Angeles

* Denotes current and former members of the Early Learning

Systems Committee of the NAEYC Governing Board.

Senior Advisors to the DAP/Diversity

and Equity Workgroup:

Sue Bredekamp and Carol Copple, editors of previous

editions of Developmentally Appropriate Practice(NAEYC)

Louise Derman Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards,

editors of Anti-Bias Education (NAEYC)

The workgroup and committee were primarily supported

by NAEYC sta members Barbara Willer, Mary Harrill,

Lauren Hogan, and Marica Cox Mitchell.

A POSITION STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | 39

Endnotes

1 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees;

American Federation of Teachers; Associate Degree Early

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Council for Professional Recognition; Division for Early

Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children; Early

Care and Education Consortium; National Association for

Family Child Care; National Association for the Education

of Young Children; National Association of Early Childhood

Teacher Educators; National Association of Elementary School

Principals; National Education Association; National Head

Start Association; Service Employees International Union; &

ZERO TO THREE. 2020. Unifying Framework for the Early

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Birth Through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation.

Join with NAEYC and the early

childhood education profession

to support the implementation

of developmentally appropriate

practice to foster young children’s

joyful learning and to maximize the

opportunities for each and every

child to achieve their full potential.

Find additional resources to help

bring the statement to life at

NAEYC.org/DAP

#naeycDAP