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Lev Vygotsky and DAP CDEV 65

Class #8

Lev Vygotsky

“In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself.”

- Lev Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

• Russian Psychologist

• Died of TB at the age of 37

• Research wasn’t published in the US until long after his death

• Huge proponent of mixed age environments

• Scaffolding

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

• Believed children learn new information through play

Scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development

• Individuals are able to learn new skills as a result of scaffolding (or support) from a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

• The learner moves up in their ZPD as a result of the scaffolding

• The learner learns new skills, improves socialization, and gains new vocabulary

• The MKO has the potential to move up in their own ZPD

Vygotsky’s Thoughts on Language

• Social Speech

• Begins when a child starts speaking

• Used for talking to others

• Private Speech

• Begins around age three

• Speaking to oneself

• Inner Speech

• Begins around age seven

• Silent, internal thoughts and ideas

Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)

• Grew out of “Open Classroom” which is a style of classroom environment

• Published in 1987 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

• Updated in 1997

• Updated again in 2008

• Serves as a “base layer” for child development curricula

• Just like Anti-Bias Curriculum, other curricula can be built on top of DAP

Let’s look at DAP in a different way…

• Developmentally

• Age

• Individual

• Culture ( added in 1997)

• Appropriate

• “it fits”

• Practice

• Everything you do

Therefore…

• DAP means:

•Everything you do fits the age, individual, and cultural differences of the children in your program.

Age Appropriate

• Think about what you have learned (perhaps in CDEV 53) about Ages and Stages of Development…

• Think about Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development…

• Piaget tells us that cognitive development is:

• sequential

• predictable

• This information gives us an idea of what skills children are capable of at different ages

• For example, we know that babies put items in their mouths to learn more about them. This knowledge will remind us that it is not AGE appropriate to have marbles in an infant/toddler program.

Individually Appropriate

• Although you have a sense of what is age appropriate, you also know that not all children move through developmental milestones at the same speed. Therefore…

• Look at each INDIVIDUAL child

• What skills does this child have?

• What interaction style is most effective for this child?

• Does this child need a little more “get ready” time than the rest of the class before we shift activities?

Culturally Appropriate

• When NAEYC published Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children From Birth Through Age 8 in 1987 age and individual appropriateness were emphasized. Individual appropriateness included the child’s culture.

• In reviewing how DAP was being used however, NAEYC determined that some programs needed more guidance in addressing culture. Cultural appropriateness was added as a separate emphasis in the 2nd edition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children From Birth Through Age 8 which came out in 1997.

• Examples of cultural appropriateness include recognizing and accommodating:

• The child’s language

• Dietary practices

• Religious and ethnic holidays and celebrations

When DAP is properly implemented…

• All areas of a child’s development will be supported (more details on next slide)

• Children and families will feel welcome and respected

• Children will be encouraged to practice new skills

• Teachers will discover more about each child’s unique differences and abilities

• Teachers will be able to connect more deeply with the children in their care and their families

Developmental Domains - PCPC

• Physical

• Fine and gross motor

• Cognitive

• Language, memory, seriation, classification, representational abilities

• Psychosocial

• Relationships with others, play, fears

• Creative

• Ideas unique to the individual