Prerna Richards has an analogy for what she’s seeing in child care programs across the country.
“Early childhood education programs right now are in the emergency room. The behaviors are telling us that the stress is way up there,” she said. “But we cannot continue like this, and we cannot raise the next generation with this much stress.”
“Those behaviors include extreme aggression, extreme anger, extreme meltdowns, extreme pushbacks, defiance and rudeness,” she said.
“We’ve gone down this path of expecting little humans to sit when they’re not developmentally made to sit this long. Brains don’t learn like this. And this is the reason why we are in the emergency room right now. Because we have gone so far from what is how children learn. Children learn through play, make sense of play, and make the world through play. And we are shutting down play. We are controlling play, we are hijacking play. We are not allowing them the freedom to play,” said Prerna.
And that’s where developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) can help children learn, especially when used in early childhood education, when 90% of the brain development is happening, while helping teachers and other staff decrease their own stresses.
“It’s age appropriate, it’s individual appropriate. We are stretching the rubber band for children. We are not making it so challenging or so easy that they get frustrated or get over-challenged and give up. It’s meeting them where they’re at,” she said.
Breaking Down Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Prerna breaks DAP down into three parts.
The first is making sure children have choices, which certainly does not mean creating a different lesson plan for each child. Rather, the choices can be smaller but powerful.
“I like to say choices equals voices. How many opportunities are you giving children during the day to make a choice? Can they choose the toy? Can they choose the play? Can they choose the friend? Can they choose where to sit? Can they choose the song? Can they choose the book? These are areas I can give them choices that don’t affect my lesson plan,” she said.
The second is to include wonder and experience! Prerna encourages ECE teachers to ask how many ways they can bring something in my room that makes them have the sense of wonder that makes them have the sense of discovery that makes them want to experience and explore.
And the third component of DAP is to bring joy and delight.
“We know the emotion of joy is the emotion of learning. When my brain is joyful, when my brain is excited, my brain is going to learn. Because that’s when the brain neurons are just like, ‘tell me more!’” said Prerna.
Behavior is a form of communication, she says.
“These extreme behaviors that we are seeing on the outside are from both the grownups and the children, let me just emphasize that behaviors are not just coming from the children,” said Prerna. “Behaviors are also coming from the grownups because they’re controlling, because they’re scared that they’ll get chaos. But that’s backfiring.”
So, what can teachers and other child care providers do with these types of stressors and challenges?
Sort, Emphasize, Prioritize!
Prerna uses what she calls SEP: sort, emphasize, prioritize.
Start by understanding the brain states.
“When I’m in my scared brain, the behavior looks different. When I’m in my emotional brain, the behavior looks different. Then I need to figure out the responses,” she said.
Also learn your “triggers.” What makes you frustrated? Is it when you must repeat yourself, for example? Figure out your triggers and make a plan.
“Also, recognize that a lot of the behaviors that are happening are attention seeking. When children’s emotional brains are empty, when their buckets are empty, they’re going to act out,” she said.
And a teacher needs the same emotional care, she said.
“A joyful teacher teaches joy. We cannot do DAP unless we are taking care of the grownups,” she said.
Want to Learn More About DAP?
Prerna has partnered with Procare Solutions to share her more of her expertise! Watch her free on-demand webinar Finding Joy through Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP): Developing Emotional Intelligence.
And check out her appearance on the Child Care Business Podcast from Procare Solutions, in which she explains how to use DAP to de-stress children and teachers.
To reach Prerna or learn more about her work, visit www.togetherwegrow.online and check out her YouTube channel for informative videos. You also can find her on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram!
