The article under consideration is the result of the cooperation between two professional writers and scientists John Filler and Yaoying Xu that was published in Childhood Education in 2006.
These two authors make one of the most successful attempts to investigate developmentally appropriate practices (also known as DAP) and to evaluate all its dimensions offered by the representatives of the National Association of Education for Young Children (NAEYC).
The main point about this article is that the authors tried to rely on different methods both qualitative and quantitative in order to find out the ways of how early childhood educators are able to cope with challenges in their practices, consider numerous inside and outside factors, and provide many children specially those who have some disabilities with a chance to develop and grasp the necessary material on the necessary level.
In this article, the authors deal with numerous developmentally appropriate practices which are inherent to specific childhood education programs in order to promote proper education and communication that happens between educators and children and between children with disabilities; to achieve better and more clear results, the authors pay their attention to such diversities like culture, ethics, and race and get a good chance to understand what has to be done more by teachers, parents, and students to cope with all educational challenged and present qualified education on different levels for different children.
One of the most powerful sides of the article is that Filler and Xu (2006) rely on the works of “such theorists as Rousseau, Locke, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Piaget, and Vygotsky, exemplified by Itard’s techniques, the Montessori approach, and the Head Start movement in the 1960s, as well as numerous other, more recent, examples of successful early childhood education programs” (p. 92).
This decision explains that this article is based on the qualitative analysis of the information gathered and analyzed for a long period of time. The quality of this data cannot be called in question because the authors of the article do not want to agree blindly with all ideas, suggestions, and decisions made before.
What they actually want to do is to evaluate the already published achievements, compare them, combine with the current state of affairs and educational conditions, and clear up how these ideas may be used nowadays. This is why it was decided to base investigations on “either sociocultural differences or ability differences that fall within the range of what might be termed ‘normal variation’” (Filler & Xu, 2006, p. 92).
In the article, developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) undergoes considerable evaluation from the NAEYC’s side. This association introduces three important dimensions according to which it is possible to regard DAP and its impact on child education.
The first dimension is connected to child development and learning; the second dimension is all about the ways of how an individual and his/her abilities are understood by educators and parents; and finally, any child has to be aware of his/her cultural environment and variables in order to become an integral and meaningful part of this world.
In fact, the authors want to underline the necessity to define any child as an individuality who can have any temperament and style and, at the same time, be influenced by culture and events around. It becomes very important to encourage the placement of every child both who may have some disabilities and who does not have any.
What is more this placement has to be the same for such children; and professional organization have to find out as many supportive ideas as possible to help any child get the necessary education and evaluate this life as well as other children do.
The quantitative side of the article may be observed in one of the parts, where the authors represent their achievements and the ways of how their investigations on the chosen topic. With the help of the table, a number of steps which have to be taken “in planning for the inclusion of a child with disabilities in a typical early childhood program” (Filler & Xu, 2006, p. 94) are presented in a clear and comprehensible way.
The enumeration of steps and their description provide every reader with a chance to get a clear picture of how the chosen educational program may be implemented in the existed surroundings. The results of such six-step planning process are perfectly described in the activity matrix.
Numerous figures and tables promote the idea that quantity plays a significant role in the analysis of learning processes and their impact on everyday life and the life of children with disabilities. It is not that easy for every child who suffers from the disability of different levels to get used to the conditions set and developed.
This is why the idea of team planning that is so properly developed by Filler and Xu and supported by many other sophisticated scientists and writers helps to “reduce potential disruptions and go long way toward creating an atmosphere of acceptance” (Filler & Xu, 2006, p. 98).
The authors suggest being more attentive to the thoughts and ideas people believe in: children grow and have to learn all necessary material to continue living on the proper level, and teachers in their turn have to know exactly how to tech these children and when these educational processes have to take place. The values of settings in education, services offered by tutors, and philosophy grasped by children should underline the uniqueness of every child.
In general, the article under consideration contain enough research methods and techniques which help to evaluate the effectiveness of learning communities and their impacts on children’s perception of the world and the demands of this life.
The mix of qualitative and quantitative methods turns out to be a good way to gain knowledge about educational programs and comprehend the essence of education for children who have and do not have disabilities the development of which may influence their lives and their future.
At the end of the article, the authors underline the significance of their work and call the reader “to pause and take a closer look at what we believe about how all children grow and learn” (Filler & Xu, 2006, p. 99). It is not always possible to explain how the educational process has to pass, and numerous works similar to the one under analysis should improve the situation and help people choose the right way for child development.
Reference List
Filler, J & Xu, Y. (2006, Winter). Including Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Education Programs: Individualizing Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Childhood Education, 83(2), 92-99. Web.