Center-Approved PD

Feeding Infants in the Child and Adult Care Food Program

This training will equip Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) sponsors with the information they need to successfully feed infants in their care. Topics include: assessing developmental readiness for solid foods, hunger and fullness cues, handling breastmilk and formula, supporting infant self-feeding, and crediting infant foods in CACFP.

Building Strong Relationships with Families

Effective family engagement involves intentionally including families in the decisions, plans, and activities that promote their child’s learning. Strong communication skills are essential to this process. In this course, participants will learn communication skills that support the establishment of positive, responsive, and cooperative relationships with families. This course includes strategies for communicating with diverse families, skills for navigating difficult conversations, and practical approaches for managing ethical dilemmas. In addition, this course equips participants with communication tactics to encourage partnerships between school programs, families, and the community.

From Food to Physical Activity

Participants will explore the importance of healthy eating, proper nutrition, and physical activity in the early childhood setting. The strategies for minimizing the development of childhood obesity issues will be identified. In addition, the topics of responding to and accommodating food allergies in young children will be addressed. This course will meet the new Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) training requirements for providers and teachers.

CDA Planner

Prepare for the Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential: build your portfolio, identify critical resources, and understand the necessary requirements for the CDA. This course guides participants through the entire CDA process. Upon course completion, participants will have prepared their documents and materials to apply for the CDA, and they will know what to expect out of the CDA Verification Visit and CDA Exam.

Understanding and Supporting the Development of Executive Function Skills

This session will provide participants with an overview of the three dimensions of executive function skills: working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Participants will gain experience interpreting observations of children in terms of executive function skills. We will discuss research-based strategies for supporting the healthy development of executive function.

All About the ITERS-R: A Fun, Hands-On Overview of the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale for Improving Quality

This workshop series provides an overview of the ITERS-R tool so that participants will be able to self-assess their own classrooms and set goals and timelines for quality improvement. (Please Note: This offering does not meet the BrightStars Learning Environments training requirement which begins at Level 2 in Standard 1: Learning Environment.)

All About the ECERS-R: A Fun, Hands-On Overview of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale for Improving Quality

This workshop series provides an overview of the ECERS-R tool so that participants will be able to self-assess their own classrooms and set goals and timelines for quality improvement. (Please Note: This offering does not meet the BrightStars Learning Environments training requirement which begins at Level 2 in Standard 1: Learning Environment.)

Responsive Feeding for Infants and Toddlers

Many caregivers approach feeding infants and toddlers using strategies similar to how they were raised. These traditional and often nonresponsive feeding practices can lead to overweight infants and toddlers, which is becoming more frequent in the United States.

Responsive feeding gives children the opportunity to notice, understand, and trust their bodies’ cues. This helps to build the skills they need to self-regulate food intake and has been shown to prevent obesity. If caregivers do not watch closely, it is easy to overfeed infants and toddlers. Regular overfeeding can eventually override a child’s internal controls, so that they no longer have appropriate hunger and fullness cues, or don’t recognize those cues.

STEM in the Preschool Classroom

Participants will be able to identify the importance of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the classroom. They will learn to understand what STEM is, the importance of STEM for young learners, activities that promote STEM learning, and strategies for getting all children involved in STEM activities. A STEM focus ensures that children will learn to innovate, adapt, understand social and cultural cues, and problem-solve.

Safe Sleep and Sweet Dreams for Infants

This course provides information about creating a safe sleep environment in the child care setting. It presents an overview of the risk factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related causes of infant death, and educates child care providers about ways to reduce the risks. Participants will gain a greater understanding of SIDS, as well as other sleep-related causes of infant death, and will learn specific strategies to reduce the risk. They will learn how to create a safe sleep environment in the child care setting, as well as tips for talking with parents and other family members about creating a safe home sleep environment.

Autism 101

Once considered a rare disorder, the most recent study on autism prevalence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 1 in 59 children are living with it. Most of us likely know someone – a friend’s child, a neighbor, a family member, a student – who has been diagnosed. The “phenomenon” of autism seeming to be everywhere leads to many questions: Is it becoming more common? What is it, anyway, and what causes it? Is there a cure? What are some strategies for working with a child who has autism who is already in your early childhood classroom? Autism 101 attempts to answer these questions and more. We hope that after taking this course, you are not only more knowledgeable about autism but that you’re inspired by the incredible strengths of this very special group of individuals.

Creating High Quality Learning Experiences for Children

How do you create high quality learning experiences for children? Learn about how to structure your classroom to best meet the needs of all children. Learn about how policies, procedures, and regulations help inform your daily practice. This training is geared for teachers of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school age students.

Play and Learn Science: Water Play / Juega y Aprende Ciencia: Juego de Agua

The Play and Learn Science: Water play workshop series fosters learning science inquiry and the engineering and design process through hands-on experiences for children ages 3-5. We will model for early childhood educators how learning can be fostered through everyday interactions that include a variety of real-world objects and the appropriate use of media.

Focusing on the Strengths of Others for Success

We live in a society in which we are always trying to improve and acquire new skills; basically, to get better, or “fix” someone. This workshop focuses on a different approach, that of what is already working well and is inherently a person’s strengths. When we focus on a person’s strengths, we can learn to have a more positive approach to supporting others, communicate more effectively, and focus on the positive.

Effective Parent-Teacher Communication

Participants will learn skills to effectively communicate with the families of children in their classrooms (ages birth to 12). This training will focus on types of communication skills and tips for effective communication with parents.

Mindful Teachers/Mindful Children — The Art of Teaching Mindfulness to Young Children to Help with Social/Emotional Skills

You’ve most likely heard about “mindfulness” but may have thought it was just the latest buzzword in the world of education. Mindfulness is about paying attention to the here and now (also known as being “present”). Mindfulness reconnects children to their five senses, bringing them into a moment-by-moment awareness of themselves and their surroundings through breathing exercises, visualization activities, and learning how to focus on learning opportunities, such as Circle Time, Small Group Time/Learning Centers, and Large Group Time. Research shows that mindfulness helps children be more attentive, less anxious, and better able to handle their emotions and self-regulation. As children build and strengthen these skills, they become capable of exhibiting empathy, compassion, and patience, and acquire better emotional and social skills.

Loving Literacy with Little Ones: 10 Engaging Ways to Promote Language Acquisition with Infants and Toddlers

Language development happens at lightning speed during the first two years of life. This workshop will introduce many ways to create an infant and/or toddler classroom filled with language, based on activities that can be easily woven into the daily routine.

Teaching Strategies® Online PD Courses

Teaching Strategies® offers robust online courses that provide early childhood educators with the opportunity to extend their learning in ways that fit their schedule and allow them to earn CEU credit upon completion. Each course contains learning activities (e.g., tutorials, applications, and knowledge extension articles) that are organized into several different topics, called “interests.” The courses are designed in a flexible and modular format so that users can complete the course “interests” in the order that best suits their individual needs.

Teaching Strategies® online courses can be completed by individual teachers or purchased by programs for program-wide PD initiatives. Courses are available for family child care educators, program administrators, preschool and Pre-K teachers, and infant and toddler teachers. Each course is 10 hours; participants can complete the courses at their own pace.

Digging Deeper: Looking Beyond Behavior to Discover Meaning

Digging Deeper: Looking Beyond Behavior to Discover Meaning includes four lessons that explore and apply the Responsive Process—Watch; Ask “I Wonder” Questions; and Adapt: Using “Flexible Responses”—to the behaviors of very young children. Developed by the Early Head Start National Resource Center, the lessons are delivered in easy-to-read, accessible language and include voice-over narration, written scripts, video examples of appropriate practice, and reflective questions. Program staff, education coordinators, and trainers may use this information to build or refresh their observation skills and responses to children’s behaviors. The lessons are available in English and en Español.

Integrating Early Childhood Social and Emotional Development into Early Childhood Systems

This presentation reviews the fundamentals of early childhood mental health and the implications of young children’s social and emotional development for their long-term outcomes. The importance of early brain development and caregiver mental health (especially depression) are highlighted.

Certificate of Completion: No

Teaching Strategies® On-Demand Webinars

Teaching Strategies® offers recorded, on-demand webinars on diverse topics, including language and literacy, child development, teacher-child interactions, curriculum, inclusion, and family engagement. Early childhood educators can access the webinars for free and watch them anytime, anywhere.

Training Module: Executive Function

The module discusses the science of executive function and self-regulation and how adults can help children build these skills. The module takes about 90 minutes to complete, and users can stop and resume participation, as needed.

Certificate of Completion: No

Building a Dynamic Brain: The Influences of Music, Movement, and Nutrition

This webinar examines brain and motor development as it relates to the prenatal period and then ages birth to 3. The webinar investigates the relationship between the developing brain, nutrition, and the motor, movement, and music development of infants and toddlers. The webinar also identifies ways that early childhood educators, administrators, and families can support such development in young children. This webinar is available in English and en Español.

Certificate of Completion: No

EarlyEDU Alliance Online Courses

Devereux Center Upcoming and Archived Webinars

The Devereux Center for Resilient Children offers both live and archived webinars for early childhood educators. Early childhood development experts share information on promoting social skills for children, healthy emotional development, and resilience. From the website, you can access and view recorded presentations, or register for upcoming live webinars. Downloadable handouts also are available. Webinar topics include supporting early learning with challenging behaviors, promoting resilience in adults who care for children, and promoting resilience in children and families involved in the child welfare system.