FAQS

DAP is an acronym for Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Early Childhood Education field. An overview along with specific age-level resources are located on the National Association for the Education of Young Children website: http://www.naeyc.org/DAP 

DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice)

What is DAP?

DAP refers to providing an environment and offering content, materials, activities, and methodologies that are coordinated with a child's level of development and for which the individual child is ready. Three dimensions of appropriateness must be considered:

• DAP is a central concept in the world of education and means teaching in ways that the child learns best. 

Why is it such a big deal?

When our best practices are developmentally appropriate, we are maximizing the learning opportunities for children.  When our practices are NOT DAP, we may actually be 'getting in the way' of children's learning. 

Example: If an Early Childhood Educator is expecting toddlers to be able to sit still for a 20 minute group time, he/she will likely see toddlers moving around and trying to leave the circle because this expectation is NOT developmentally appropriate for children this age (see #1 above Age appropriateness). 

https://www.naeyc.org/DAP