DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICES AND EARLY-CHILDHOOD SPECIAL-EDUCATION - A REACTION TO JOHNSON AND JOHNSON,MCCHESNEY

In 1991, we published a paper in TECSE arguing that the guidelines set forth by the National Association for the Education of Young Children on Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) were necessary, but not sufficient, for evaluating programs serving young children with speci al needs. This paper met with some criticism, most recently in a paper by Johnson and McChesney Johnson (1992). That paper provided a theore tical defense of DAP for young children with disabilities and discusse d objections to some early childhood special education (ECSE) practice s from a developmental perspective. In the present article, we attempt to redirect the debate about the appropriateness of DAP for young chi ldren with disabilities from an exchange about the differences between the DAP guidelines and ECSE practices to a discussion of the many are as of overlap between these two rich sources of information about educ ational practices for young children.