Revisiting the NAEYC Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice

Headnote

Update

Determining how to revise NAEYC's most influential position statement, the statement on developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), is clearly not a task for a week or a month. In fact, work has continued for more than a year. Here are the accomplishments so far.

Initially, NAEYC staff spent some 14 months listening to members and other early childhood educators in open forums at our conferences and reading the responses to our requests for input in Young Children and on the NAEYC Web site. Comments came in from all around the country and from early childhood educators holding a variety of jobs and perspectives.

Having digested these wide-ranging ideas and suggestions, NAEYC staff were ready for more in-depth discussion of the issues, challenges, and opportunities in early childhood practice today and what the DAP statement should say about these. To...