Focus on Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Equitable and Joyful Learning with Infants and Toddlers

What Does Developmentally Appropriate Practice Look Like in an Infant and Toddler Program?

If you’ve ever wondered how effective teachers actually do DAP with very young children, this is the book for you. Here, you can peek into classrooms to see teachers making intentional decisions in key areas of practice. These areas form the six guidelines for DAP in action:

1. Building a community where everyone is welcomed and supported to grow

2. Facilitating reciprocal partnerships with families

3. Observing, assessing, and documenting children’s development and learning

4. Using teaching strategies that enhance learning for each child

5. Implementing curriculum tied to meaningful learning goals

6. Demonstrating professionalism

You’ll discover

• More about what each guideline means for working with infants and toddlers and their families
• Chapters that showcase articles from Young Children and NAEYC book excerpts—plus brand-new content—illustrating excellent teaching strategies related to each guideline
• Examples you can model, adapt, and implement in your own practice

Enrich and deepen your teaching, and enable children’s learning to flourish!

Marie L. Masterson, PhD, is the director of quality assessment at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University, where she oversees evaluation for Illinois ExceleRate. She holds a doctorate in early childhood education, is a licensed teacher, and is a national speaker and author of many books and articles that address research-based, practical skills for high-quality teaching, behavior guidance, quality improvement, and leadership. She is a contributing editor of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age Eight, Fourth Edition, and coauthor of Building on Whole Leadership: Energizing and Strengthening Your Early Childhood Program. Dr. Masterson is a former higher education faculty teacher trainer and early childhood specialist for the Virginia Department of Education. She provides educational consulting and professional development training to child care programs, schools, and organizations engaged in quality improvement and equitable teaching initiatives.

Ron Grady, MSEd, engages in work centered on the social worlds and peer cultures of young children, wondering how lived experience is both constructed within and revealed throughout play, the creation of art and narrative, and visual media such as photography and film. He taught preschool at NOLA Nature School in New Orleans for many years. Ron is a doctoral student in education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and holds a master’s degree in early childhood education from the Erikson Institute. He is the author of Honoring the Moment in Young Children’s Lives: Observation, Documentation, and Reflection(Redleaf Press) and many articles on early childhood topics. He is also the author and illustrator of the children’s book What Does Brown Mean to You? Ron serves on the editorial boards of both the Harvard Educational Review and Voices of Practitioners.

Series editor

Susan Friedman is senior director of publishing and content development at NAEYC. In this role, she leads the content development work of NAEYC’s books and periodicals teams. Ms. Friedman is coeditor of Each and Every Child: Teaching Preschool with an Equity Lens. She has extensive prior experience creating content on play, developmentally appropriate uses of media, and other topics for educators and families. She has presented at numerous educational conferences, including NAEYC’s Professional Learning Institute and Annual Conference, the South by Southwest Education (SXSW EDU) Conference & Festival, and the School Superintendents Association’s Early Learning Cohort. She began her career as a preschool teacher at City and Country School in New York City. She holds degrees from Vassar College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.