The Growing Brain Webinar Series - November 2025

Registration closes 1 week before Sessions begin

Attendance for this series of webinars is automated and verified by using an attendance verification code. This code is only provided during the live session and recording. The code will NOT be provided by email. You must attend all sessions through our eLearn platform. 

How babies’ brains grow in the context of relationships is one of the most important topics in early childhood development. Research on this topic is exploding, underscoring the need for early childhood professionals to learn about foundations of brain development and strategies to best support the growing brains of infants and young children. This series supports participants’ exploration of key concepts, research, and concrete strategies from ZERO TO THREE’s The Growing Brain: From Birth to 5 Years Old curriculum. The series is composed of 4, 90-minute webinars expertly facilitated by ZERO TO THREE Faculty: 

• Brain Basics 
• Cognitive Development: Language and Executive Function 
• Social-Emotional Development and Understanding Behavior 
• Everyday Play 

Webinar Descriptions with Learner Objectives: 

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: 

• Recognize the basic parts of the brain and recall their functions.  
• Summarize how nerve cells communicate and connect.  
• Identify factors that affect brain growth and development.  
• 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: 

• Illustrate the relationship between language and executive function skills as it relates to cognitive development. 
• Identify key milestones from birth to 12 months, 12 to 36 months, and 3 to 5 years. 

• Explain multilanguage learning and its importance. 
• 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: 

• Summarize how social–emotional development unfolds in the first 5 years. 
• Describe the role of relationships and attachment in social–emotional development. 
• Outline the development of empathy. 
• 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: 

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

Recordings are typically available 24-48 hours after each live session.  Participants will be notified when recordings are available. You'll find them under the content tab. Full viewing is required to earn CEUs. Visit the About CEU tab for more information. 

Access to this course and its materials closes 30 Days after the last live session. Please complete all necessary requirements to earn credit before that time. Completed Certificates are available on demand via the Transcripts and Achievements section of your dashboard.

**Live Attendance or full viewing of session recordings required**

ZERO TO THREE is pleased to offer Continuing Education Units for a wide range of learning events, both in person and on line.

Contact hours and CEUs are automatically added to your registration for no additional charge. Registrants can earn up to 0.6 CEUs or 6 Contact hours for attending this event. Continuing Education Units are awarded with a passing quiz score of 75% or greater for each session and a completed series evaluation. 

Learning objectives vary per session: 

The Growing Brain Webinar Series 1 – Brain Basics

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.

The Growing Brain Webinar Series 2 – Cognitive Development: Language and Executive Function

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.

 The Growing Brain Webinar Series 3 – Social Emotional Development and Understanding Behavior

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. 
5. Explain the root causes of behaviors that challenge and articulate effective strategies to address them.

 The Growing Brain Webinar Series 4 – Everyday Play 

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. 

Contact hours offered may vary per discipline. For more information regarding ZERO TO THREE CEUs, please visit: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1657-earn-ceus-from-zero-to-three. Please note: A computer or electronic device with internet connection is required for successful completion. Each session will be hosted for 1.5 hours and includes a brief introduction, 75 mins of content based teaching, and 10 to 15 minutes of Q and A. Questions can be posted throughout the session, and the presenter will address as many as possible. 

Additional Details:

ZERO TO THREE is accredited as an Authorized Provider of Continuing Education and Training by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). In obtaining this accreditation, we have demonstrated compliance with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognized internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices. As the official standard for continuing education and training, IACET Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are recognized by a wide range of organizations, including professional associations, regulatory boards, corporations, and universities.

Though IACET CEUs are widely accepted, it is up to each organization to choose whether or not it will accept them. For this reason, we strongly advise that you confirm in advance if a particular body accepts IACET CEUs. To view a list of companies, regulatory boards, and organizations that have reported to accept the IACET CEU credit, please click here. This list is not exhaustive, nor does it guarantee that an IACET CEU will automatically be accepted. 

*Presenters have affirmed that they do not have proprietary interest in products, instruments, devices, services or materials discussed in this course, and have confirmed that they have not been compensated in relation to this presentation. 

Cancellation/Refund Policy All cancellation/refund requests must be received in writing by email to ZERO TO THREE (ZTT) at least thirty (30) days before the event start date. Refund requests will be processed within 30 days after the request is received. No refunds will be made within 30 days of the event start date. All sales within 30 days of an event are final.   

  Transfers Registrations may be transferred to an identical event in the future, or to another person. Transfers to future events must be received by email to ZTT at least 30 days before the original event’s start date. If transferring to another person, the original registrant should submit a transfer notice at least one (1) business day prior to the event start date. It should include the name of the person to whom the registration is being transferred along with the phone number and email of the substitute.

 Send cancellation / refund / transfer related correspondence to learningevents@zerotothree.org