The Growing Brain: From Birth to Five Years Old

The Growing Brain: From Birth to Five Years Old focuses on providing early educators with a comprehensive understanding of how the brain develops, and strategies to encourage brain health. Research indicates that from birth to five years is a period of tremendous brain growth and development. Relationships with key people and the environment in which the child grows offer incredible opportunities to impact this maturation process positively.

The Growing Brain: From Birth to Five Years Old helps early educators:

  • Understand the structure and function of the brain
  • Learn about the factors and experiences that can harm the growing brain, especially stress, and how to
    protect the brain from harm
  • Recognize the connections between the brain, language development, and sensory functioning

The Growing Brain: From Birth to Five Years Old includes the following lessons:

  1.   Brain Basics  3 hours
  2.   Factors Affecting Brain Growth and Development  3 hours
  3.   Communication and Language Development  3 hours
  4.   Cognition and Executive Function  3 hours
  5.   Social-Emotional Development  3 hours
  6.   Understanding Behavior  3 hours
  7.   Everyday Play  3 hours

The Growing Brain: From Birth to Five Years Old offers the following to all participants:

  • Up to 21 hours of professional development credit from the Arkansas Professional Development Registry and the Arkansas Department of Education
  • Available for anyone to enroll in FREE OF CHARGE
  • FREE course materials and access to in-depth content, including a participant manual and other resources
  • Up to 2.1 Continuing Education Units, upon request
  • Certificate of Completion and Verification of Training Hours, upon request
  • Opportunity to collaborate and build community engagement with other industry experts

Visit the Arkansas Professional Development Registry to find available courses or call (800) 632-8754.

The Arkansas Department of Education approves all courses provided by Early Care and Education Projects for professional development credit. However, the awarding of professional development credit based on attendance at this workshop is solely at the discretion of the local school district. Learn more by reviewing the Arkansas Department of Education Rules Governing Professional Development (Feb 2016).