Developmentally appropriate practices and children's perception of self-competence in Head Start classrooms

The present project studied the relationship between the use of developmentally appropriate practices and children's perception of self-competence in Head Start classrooms. Self-competence is defined as children's confidence in succeeding in certain tasks. Developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) as proposed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) are teaching practices that are age appropriate, individually appropriate and culturally appropriate. Seventy-two children attending six Head Start centres participated in the study. Trained researchers filled out the Rating Scale to assess the use Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Classrooms. The participating children's perceived self-competence was measured using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance. Correlational analysis showed that some of the subscales assessing the use of developmentally appropriate practices were correlated with two of the subscales of the children's perception of self-competence. The above results provide some insight into the importance of the use of developmentally appropriate practices and their effects on children.