The Growing Brain Basics Webinar Series: August 4-25, 2026

Brain Basics: Explore how the brain grows and develops from conception to 5 years old and how you can support healthy brain development during these years when the brain is the most plastic, or receptive to change.  

Learner Objectives:

1. Recognize the basic parts of the brain and recall their functions.  
2. Summarize how nerve cells communicate and connect.  
3. Identify factors that affect brain growth and development.  
4. Describe how to support healthy brain development.  

Cognitive Development: Language and Executive Function—delve into the cognitive skills of language and executive function from birth to five years, how these skills are heavily intertwined and support each other, and strategies you can use to support development in these two areas.  

Learner Objectives:

1. Illustrate the relationship between language and executive function skills as it relates to    cognitive development. 
2. Identify key milestones from birth to 12 months, 12 to 36 months, and 3 to 5 years. 
3. Explain multilanguage learning and its importance. 
4. Describe strategies for supporting language and cognitive development. 

Social-Emotional Development and Understanding Behavior: Examine how social-emotional development unfolds in the first 5 years, the role relationships and attachment play in this development, the specifics of empathy development, key factors that influence behavior, and root causes and effective strategies to address behaviors that challenge.  

Learner Objectives: 

1. Summarize how social–emotional development unfolds in the first 5 years. 
2. Describe the role of relationships and attachment in social–emotional development. 
3. Outline the development of empathy. 
4. Identify the key factors that influence behavior. Explain the root causes of behaviors that are challenging and articulate effective strategies to address them.

Everyday Play: Discover how play builds children’s capacities in all areas of development, the difference between free and guided play, the stages of social interaction, and ways to promote the core skills children develop through play.    

Learner Objectives:

1. Summarize the development of play and differentiate between free and guided play. 
2. Identify the stages of play and the stages of social interaction in play. 
3. Describe the core skills that children develop through play and strategies to promote these skills.