Play, DAP, and Kindergarten Poem Guide

• Play and Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is a teaching approach focused on nurturing a child's overall growth through child development theories and play-based learning.
• DAP emphasizes creating a supportive learning environment, assessing child development, and building strong family relationships.
• A developmentally appropriate practice uses suitable learning resources that match learners' interests/abilities.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

• The poem stresses the value of early childhood education and guides educators in teaching young children.
• The poem lists things like sharing, playing fair, not hitting, putting things back, cleaning up messes, not taking others' things, apologizing, washing hands, and flushing.
• Other important things include warm cookies and cold milk, a balanced life, naps, watching out for traffic, holding hands, and being aware of wonder.
• The poem encourages remembering simple things like seeds in cups, goldfish, hamsters, white mice, and the word "LOOK”.
• Everything needed is love, basic sanitation, ecology, politics, equality, and sane living.
• Those items can translate to adult applications in family, work, government, and the world.
• Ideal is everyone having cookies and milk in the afternoon, then napping.

Nature and Meaning of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)

• The Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) framework relies on child development research, learning, and effective teaching methods, promoting optimal development.
• DAP emphasizes a teacher's role in helping young children achieve challenging yet attainable goals individually and within a group.
• Developmentally appropriate practice means using child development knowledge to make good choices about early childhood program practices.
• Best practice comes from knowledge, not assumptions about learning and development.
• The accumulation of data and facts about children informs developmentally appropriate practice, not curricula or rigid standards.
• It is a flexible framework or philosophy for working with young children.

Basic Principles of Development

• Early childhood teachers need to know the first eight years of life to support growth and development.

• The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has twelve principles from research, study, theory, and practice.

• All domains of development and learning, including physical, social, emotional, and cognitive, are crucial and interconnected.

• Development in one domain affects others, meaning activities should support all areas equally instead of focusing on one, like cognitive skills.

• A program must support all domains equally, integrating learning experiences for overall growth.

• Learning and development follow sequences, with later skills building on earlier ones.

• Understanding typical development helps adults recognize growth patterns and challenges, guiding curriculum decisions.

• Teachers should know learning sequences and avoid rushing children, letting them proceed at their own pace.

• Development and learning occur at different rates for each child and differently across various areas of individual functioning.

• Each child develops uniquely due to factors like genetics, health, temperament, and experiences.

• Age expectations conflict with this principle.

• Development and learning arise from ongoing interaction between biology and experience (nature and nurture).

• For example, genetic potential can be affected by nutrition in early years.

• Early experiences have lasting effects on a child's development, with optimal periods for learning.

• Positive/negative early experiences impact later development, i.e. developing social skills through play and entering primary school confidently.

• The early years are critical for optimal learning.

• Development progresses towards complexity, self-regulation, and symbolic abilities

• Children's functioning becomes more sophisticated in language, movement, problem-solving, and social skills including from sensorimotor to symbolic understanding.

• Programs using this principle should provide sensory experiences and materials that help represent knowledge and understanding.

• Children thrive with secure relationships with responsive adults and positive peer interactions.

• Having warm relationships fosters language, communication, self-regulation, cooperation, peer relationships, and identity.

• Social and emotional competence is needed for later school success.

• Development and learning are shaped by multiple social and cultural contexts like family, community, and school.

• Being able to function in more than one linguistic/cultural context should be respectfully supported.

• Children should add experiences while keeping the contexts with which they started, as home languages/cultures should be respected/reinforced in early education.

• Children actively seek to understand the world and learn in different ways through different teaching methods

• The key principles of developmentally appropriate practice come from theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky.

• Young children learn from family, teachers, peers, and media.

• Play is important for developing self-regulation, language, cognition, and social skills, where children construct their knowledge and test boundaries.

• Research links play to skills like memory, self-regulation, language, social abilities, and school success.

• Development and learning advance most when appropriately challenged beyond current mastery with opportunities to practice acquired skills

• Teachers should identify growing competencies/interests, setting achievable goals.

• Children learn when experiences are above their present abilities, mostly with supportive adults and collaborative peers to achieve more complex skill levels.

• Children’s experiences shape their motivation and approaches to learning including persistence, initiative, and flexibility.

• Early childhood educators must delineate developmentally appropriate practice because it impacts self-esteem, stress, self-control, and academic patterns.

• Failure is created through activities beyond a child's developmental level and the risk of feeling incompetent, impacting development.

• Children gradually govern their behavior according to adult guidance, and believe in discipline and guidance in the form of limits.

• Teachers select age appropriate teaching techniques based on understanding the the child’s learning ability.

• Too much content through formal instruction is a common risk creating stress, contrary to their natural style.

• Young children instructed to acquire skills for reading, run the risk of early achievement, children's own disposition to become readers will be undetermined.

• Also helpless, that Structured learning can disrupt a child's natural motivation to learn.

• A misunderstanding is believing there is only one right way, but DAP is molding teacher strategies to needs/interests of individuals.

• Teachers modify teaching strategies and learning.

• Another misunderstanding is believing a DAP classroom is unstructured, when it is a balanced carefully with purposeful planning.

• A third misunderstanding is believing that teachers minimally or not at all teach in DAP, but teachers are in charge (not dominating), using a variety of strategies.

• A fourth misunderstanding is DAP doesn't include academics, when children's interests brings opportunities for academic/content learning.

• A fifth misunderstanding is DAP only works for typically developing, white, middle-class children, because experts feel an academic approach is essential for lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

• A sixth misunderstanding is stating in DAP classrooms, there is no way to tell if children are learning and even youngest are subjected to pop quizzes.

• A seventh misunderstanding is DAP is achieved by acquiring certain toys/materials, but the truth is, materials are components and the standards express concern with too much pencil/paper learning.

• An eighth misunderstanding is DAP uses no goals/objectives, NAEYC rejects an inappropriate practice, DAP uses goals/objectives.

• A ninth misunderstanding is curriculum is child development, but development is only one of three dimensions (cultural and knowledge).

10. A tenth misunderstanding is DAP is just one of changing trends of which, its roots lie at the beginning of this century.

Valuing Play

• Play allows children to use creativity, develop imagination, dexterity and strength and is how a children learn most effectively.
• Play helps children understand the world, through media, print, internet resources, research, community play spaces, museums, school programs, professional organizations, families, and teachers..

Obstacles to Play

• Poverty, and shifting cultural values are obstacles to play
• Media and limited places lead children in America to be concerned about a shift and rising levels of commercialization.

State of Play in a Global Society

• The state of play differs throughout the world but always includes creativity.

Characteristics of Play

• A key characteristic is pleasure
• It is always is voluntary
• Play is nonliteral also
• The child is actively engaged
• Play is free of external rules
• The focus means rather that end results

Play and Exploration

• Play and exploration are related but distinctly different.
• Exploration comes before play.

Play or Playfulness

• Playfulness is personality based, not an object.

Classical and Current Theories of Play

• Psychoanalytic Theory: Play benefits social and emotional development.
• Constructivist Theory: Play is an avenue for intellectual growth
• Sociocultural Theory: Cognitive development is during social interaction.
• Arousal Modulation Theory: Is a result of biological adaptation.
• Communication Theory: Children create a context for play when exchanging communicative textual signals.
• Cognitive Adaptation Theory: Cognitive adaptation builds on research by using knowledge using symbols. This is called symbolic constructivism.
• Theory of Mind: Is when he/she has an internal mental state and that others also have internal structures
• Postmodern Theories: Theorist use critical theory to inform their research.
• Gail Canella: Play is viewed through a middle-class, European lens.

Play in a Changing Society

• How play is observed is culturally bias
• How special needs children play is of equal important

Technology

• Advances change from very quickly because of positive to less.

What is Observing?

• Documenting behavior patterns over time is observing.

How is Play used in Assessment?

• Play interventions are conducted in a play context for evaluating a child’s current level.

Ecological Factors

• Influenced not only by the immediate environment, but factors in the surrounding. also referred as bioecological system theory. Include the microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem, macro system, and chronosystem.

Microsystem

• The direct environment we have.

Mesosystem

• The relationships between the microsystems in life.

Exosystem

• A setting in the link between the context no active person and the context the father is in abroad.

Macrosystem

• Setting involves culture

Chronosystem

• Occurs over the lifetime and how divorce plays a factor

Types of Observation

• Anecdotal Records: Is usually recorded right after written in past tense and the actions.
• Running Records: A true story of the behavior written in the time occurs
• Learning Stories: That should focus on the decisions

Sociograms

• A map of the child interaction within the group of social skills.

Time Samples

• To record track of the behavior a and the behaviors occurred.

Understanding Cognitive Development

• It is how knowledge skills and dispositions which help children the word around them.

Piagetian- Inspired Stages of Play

• learning takes place through constructive process through building knowledge, skills through a slow, continuous process of information.

Two Processes:

• Assimilation: Taking in and using process to pleasure.
• Accommodation: adapting current levels to take in information

Vygotskian Tools of the Mind

• The increasingly complex mental activities were derived from social and cultural contexts.

Montessori

• Unique methods, material, and especially have trained teachers to follow Montessori's directions

1. Teachers specifically educated in philosophy and methods.
2. Partnerships with families.
3. Multi-aged heterogeneous groups of children.
4. Diverse Montessori materials and experiences, carefully presented and sequenced needs.
5. Schedules long block of time to problem solve and become deeply involved in learning.
6. The classroom an atmosphere encourages social interaction for cooperative learning.

Montessori

• Divided into learning areas with carefully arranged materials on open shelves Known for specific didactic materials, often beautiful from wood A collection of the pink tower

Unoccupied Behavior

• Exhibited by a child not playing or observing

Onlooker Behavior

• Displayed by child not others at playing.

Solitary Play

• Where a child uninterested and in focus

Parallel Play

• A child plays apart but in close to other is called parallel play

Associative Play

• A child intersted but not coordinate.

Cooperative Play

• When the child intersted in who and playing organized. Also incressed identification with group identity.

Benefits of Organizing for Assessment

• allows an organization to identify strengths and weaknesses, excellent method to take a figurative step back and evaluate.
• Case Study*
• Case Studies: Investigation a single individual, group or event that used in social sciences.
• Portfolios*
• Aid tools because Portfolios can be unique to each child and the contents

How play might contribute to language development and learning

• Play helps children understand world physically is essential to development for brain, cognitive, social and overall development with effective communication.
• Plays nurture relationships increase happiness, and encourage.

What Children Learn Through Play

• They play or developed skills
• Plays habitually
• It anxiety and fear.

The Role of the Adult

• Supports in success
• The relationship with others
• Facilitate Learning

Organizing Play

• For require organization with planning that provides a environment that has a spiraling design.

Providing Play time

• Is influenced by teachers with reactions Play is crucial where teachers shouldn't interrupt with long times.

Space

• That 30-50 sqft
• A lack is connected with children interaction that is used a variety amount which increasing with space available.

Materials

• Is developmental appropriate

Observing Play

• Is an individual create
• Is a teacher in varied play that develop, they will:
• Assume a varied play.
• Help in parallel play
• Is a leader

Extending Play-Based Learning

• Explore art
• music
• movement

Play Mediums

• Help
• Language
• Literacy
• math
• science
• social studies

Designing Play Centers for Preschoolers

• Art Centers
• Music and Movement
• Book Centers
• Help Setting up a book center: should be in quiet area.
• Display the books and neating.

Integrative Play Models

• Are use to a program.

Developmental-Interaction

1- The bank school to enhance child that has to understand by being to question, plan provide, and assess relationships. 2- That uses field trip as child into world that children write

High Scope

• To provide actitivies to Foster
• The 1st step plan

Constructivist Model

• That ideas of Piaget , Vygotsky

Constructivist Model

• Is used a area

Curriculum Framework

• To provide a framework to used different models

Play-Base Assessment

• Easy

1. research
2. profession
3. globilizaton

What might facilitate children enjoy:

• Let children make own decision to understand freedom
• They are intrinsically motivated
• Children immerse moment.
• That play is spontaneous not scripted.
• The the fun

Helping children by children planning

• They will develop a understanding
• The level they needed it.
• Providing for helping others understanding.

Maslow's

• Is to the understand

Aesthetics-Based Approach

• Children learn beauty
• Is created into stimulating in help of the children

Mathematics

• Is used in engagent 1 classifying. Sorting them colors.

2. Exploring magnitude.(
3. Enumerating.
4. Dynamics

Science

• The support building with structure

Setting Design

• The play where every has a role
• The child's work

1. They provide all five development abilities. 2 is play promotes engaging.

2. Relieves nature. 4 allows children decisions. 5,develops self control

3. Promoto risk taking

   What helps to play as a environment or space?

• The role that help the children with play
• The the need for all
• In helpfulness

Value and for children for the need special

4. Special needs with families. 2- They’ll need to help create opportunity cognitive 3- What can they do

• The children are the first

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2. Let is that all able can say and do 3 is easy 4 The used to what they and. 5 - In as can with the others to and the

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