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Developmentally Appropriate Expectations
Birth through Age 5
90% of brain growth happens before kindergarten
The brain is almost adult sized by age 5-7 (but will still be refined).
Did you know...?
Only weeks after conception, neurons multiply and move in the brain to begin the functioning process. In fact, most neurons of the adult brain are produced before birth!
This explains how the brain learns even before birth--like an infant knowing its parents’ voices.
By the age of 4, the amount of glucose (energy being used in the brain) and blood flow to the cortex are double of an adult.
Kindergarteners have more synapses than adults. As children grow, neurons are pruned based on experience. “The brain adapts to experience, so that experience becomes biology. Both nature and nurture shape the brain” (Bergin & Bergin, 2018)
Many psychologists and scientist throughout the years have studied the importance of play.
Piaget
Play is not only an integral part of child development,
but the environment and opportunities for play should adjust as the child develops
to support and encourage both cognitive and language development.
Froebel: The Creator of Kindergarten
Children build their understanding through direct experiences with their world.
We must observe and understand on the child’s level, through their lens (Bruce, 2015).
Pestalozzi
The whole child matters—the hand, the heart and the head
Teaching the whole child is done best through developmentally appropriate activities.
“Children develop as a natural unfolding or blossoming from within. Teachers nurture children instead of directing” (Bredekamp, 2019).
Lev Vygotsky
Children learn best when interacting with others (and benefit the most from those who are more skilled).
“In play a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior,
in play, it’s as though he were a head taller than himself.”
These first beliefs hold true today throughout the world.
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