Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators™ Online Course

The ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators™ online course and micro-courses provide opportunities for infant-toddler educators to observe, understand, and reflect on critical interactions with infants and toddlers that support and nurture their social-emotional, cognitive, and language and literacy development and learning. The course is designed for educators who work in home or center-based group settings with infants and/or toddlers. The course takes a scenario-based approach, and uses observation, modeling of best practice, critical thinking, and reflection on one’s own practice to facilitate and support the knowledge and skill building.  

 

The full Course explores all of the Critical Competencies areas and each of its 13 sub-areas (covers 1 sub-area per module): 

  • Micro-Course Area 1: Supporting Social-Emotional Development: 6 modules  
  • Micro-Course Area 2: Supporting Cognitive Development: 4 modules 
  • Micro-Course Area 3: Supporting Language and Literacy Development: 3 modules 

 In this course, participants will: 

  • Identify, recognize, analyze and build understanding of the ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators™ that support social-emotional, cognitive, and language and literacy development in children, ages birth through 3;  
  • Integrate knowledge of children’s social-emotional, cognitive, and language and literacy development with knowledge of supportive teaching practices;  
  • Apply knowledge of multi-language learners and children from vulnerable populations in the analysis of teaching practices that will best support social-emotional, cognitive, and language and literacy development and learning; and  
  • Reflect on and evaluate their own current practice of the ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators™ and develop plans for implementing new knowledge and skills.  

The Course and Micro-Courses begin with an overview module that provides the learner with information about the: ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant‐Toddler Educators™ model; structure of each module; goals and expectations for the learner; navigation through the online environment. Each module takes approximately 90 minutes to complete. Learners complete a knowledge assessment at the conclusion of each of the three Critical Competencies Areas. 

Within each module, learners will explore four age-based tracks: infants, toddlers, twos (i.e., 2-year-olds), and mixed-age. Each age track leads the learner through a series of three stories, or scenarios. Each module also provides learners with additional resources specific to that sub-area of the Critical Competencies that they can download as PDFs: 

  • Text of the Illustration Stories and questions; 
  • Additional child development content; 
  • Recommended resources for further information; and 
  • An Action Plan that includes all responses that the learner has entered on-screen in response to reflection questions and prompts throughout the module. 

 In addition, each learner receives access to the ZERO TO THREE Critical Competencies for Infant‐Toddler Educators™ eBook for downloading. 

Key:

Complete
Failed
Available
Locked
Critical Competencies for Infant-Toddler Educators™ Online Modules: Introduction
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Area 1: Supporting Social-Emotional Development and Learning
SE-1: Building Warm, Positive, and Nurturing Relationships
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SE-2: Providing Consistent and Responsive Caregiving
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SE-3: Supporting Emotional Expression and Regulation
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SE-4: Promoting Socialization
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SE-5: Guiding Behavior
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SE-6: Promoting Children’s Sense of Identity and Belonging
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Area 2: Supporting Cognitive Development
C-1: Facilitating Exploration and Concept Development
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C-2: Building Meaningful Curriculum
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C-3: Promoting Imitation, Symbolic Representation, and Play
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C-4: Supporting Reasoning and Problem Solving
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Area 3: Supporting Language and Literacy Development
L&L-1: Promoting Communication Exchange
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L&L-2: Expanding Expressing and Receptive Language and Vocabulary
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L&L-3: Promoting Early Literacy
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Certificate of Completion
Certificate of Completion
19.50 Clock Hours credits  |  Certificate available
19.50 Clock Hours credits  |  Certificate available
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