Discussion Forum 3     CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND DAP

The umbrella for Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is equated with quality early childhood education.  The three components of DAP are age appropriateness, individual appropriateness, and social and cultural responsiveness.  For this discussion board forum, you will focus solely on age appropriate activities, as this is a good starting place for the beginning teacher.  Using the major milestones described in the Word Pictures in chapter three of the Gordon & Browne text, choose one age group, and clearly identify that age group in your subject line.  For our purposes, do not select the school age children of six, seven, or eight year olds.  No more than five students should select the same age group.   

Create and describe at least five activities that are age appropriate, and match one particular activity to each one of the five developmental domains described in the Word Pictures for your selected age group:  Social-Emotional, Language, Physical-Motor, Creative, and Cognitive.  In the midst of the social-emotional and cognitive domains, you will also find clues to the moral and spiritual development of the child.  How would you incorporate lessons and activities to help the child to grow in their knowledge of God and a virtuous life?  You may find that any one activity may encourage development across several domains at the same time, so be sure to mention all the connections you see.  Along with the activity, explain how this particular activity supports development in the specific domains you described.  Only one paragraph is necessary this week.