Developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) describe as approach to education that focuses on the child as a developing human being and

life long learner. This approach recognized the child as an active participant in the learning process; a participant who constructs meaning and knowledge through interaction with others, friends and family, materials and environment. The teacher in an active facilitator who helps the child make meaning of the various activities and interaction encountered throughout the day. Developmentally appropriate practices require teachers to make decisions in the classroom by combining their knowledge of child development with an understanding of the individual child to achieve and meaningful outcomes. The term developmentally appropriate practices was Statement popularized by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) with the 1987 publication of its Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Programs. NAEYC developed the position statement to support its early childhood program accreditation system, which acknowledges and endorses programs offering appropriate early childhood practices. With this system, early childhood educators can have a clear sense of appropriate early childhood practices. This way they might not use inappropriate developmental and academic expectations to prepare children for public school kindergarten programs. At the same time NAEYC addressed the issue of appropriate practices in early childhood education, landmark decisions were made in education and civil rights legislation. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the Pennsylvania Early Intervention Services System Act (Act 212) entitle eligible young children (birth through the age of beginners) and their families to early interventation services and programs. A key component of this legislation calls for

inclusion of children who have disabilities in natural environments; that is, in community activities and programs with their peers who are not disabled. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, P.L. 102-336) requires all early childhood programs be prepared to serve all children. This trend toward inclusion of children who have disabilities into all early childhood settings, including home- and center- based child care programs, nursery schools, play groups, Head start, preschools and kindergartens, requires partnerships between early childhood education and early childhood special education.