Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum and Development in Early Education

Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum and Development in Early Education, 3e is a thoughtful and comprehensive reference that is now even more effective with the addition of several new features and enhanced content. The book takes a topical approach and assumes some basic child development knowledge/experience, and is intended as a guide for thoughtful consideration of classroom and caregiver practices. In the first section, developmentally appropriate practice is discussed and explored, including an in-depth, extended section on the theory and research of play. Subsequent sections address environments such as physical, social/emotional, and cognitive/language. The coverage of these important environments is comprehensive and individually addresses appropriate practice for all early childhood age groups. The fifth section moves into a discussion of making changes for the teachers and caregivers and how to gain support for those changes. Well-known curriculum approaches are also explored in-depth, allowing the reader to understand how these approaches fit into the principles of developmentally appropriate practice. Some new features include ?What Would You Do?? and ?Think About It? sections that encourage further thought and discussion, as well as current reference and reading suggestions to allow the reader to continue the learning process on their own.

Carol Gestwicki was an instructor in the early childhood education program at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, for over 30 years. Her teaching responsibilities have included supervising students in classroom situations as they work with families. Earlier in her career, she worked with children and families in a variety of community agencies and schools in Toronto, New York, New Jersey, and Namibia (South West Africa). She received her MA from Drew University. She has been an active member of the NAEYC for many years, including making numerous presentations at state and national conferences. She has been a Fellow in the Early Childhood Leadership Development Project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she has been associated with the T.E.A.C.H. Model/Mentor program. Her other publications include more than two dozen articles about child development and family issues and scripts and design for 14 audiovisual instructional programs. She has three other books on topics in early education published by Delmar Learning: Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum and Development in Early Education, Fifth edition (2013); Essentials of Early Education (1997); and Authentic Childhood: Exploring Reggio Emilia in the Classroom (2002). Currently, she writes a regular column titled "Grandma Says" for Growing Child.