Professional Development

WEBINAR: The Healing Power of Play and Optimism

Optimism is powerful. When human beings strengthen their ability to see and focus on the goodness and value in themselves, others, and the world around them, their social, emotional and cognitive superpowers emerge. Optimism, however, is fragile. Chronic stress, fear and overwhelming adversity can weaken and destroy our capacity for optimism. This inspiring webinar helps Early Childhood Professionals discover the power of optimism to create safe, loving, joyful, and engaging environments where kids can heal, grow and thrive. Using research, humor and personal stories, it shares how practicing optimism can bring out the best in ourselves, our colleagues and our children.

2023 CNC Conference Session Recordings

Let’s keep the learning going… and growing! We have started to post session recordings on the CMAS website in the Learning Centre. Here’s a list of the conference session recordings that are now available for everyone!


Sing & Sign Webinar: Supporting Emerging Language Through Music, Sign Language, and Play

Join this interactive and informative presentation to learn simple steps to start signing with young children, key benefits, and easy ways to incorporate signing across the environments and routines of your day with young children!

Webinar: Trauma-Sensitive Care for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos

This webinar helps caregivers and advocates of young children recognize the many types of stress and maltreatment that infants, toddlers, and twos may experience, and know how to create positive caregiving environments that set children on a positive developmental trajectory. In it, you'll learn about the role of rhythm and movement in building healthy brains, the importance of predictable, consistent interactions, the key elements of an emotionally safe environment, and more!

CMAS Webinar: Supporting Newcomer Children through Active Play–Teaming up with Active for Life!

Incorporating physical literacy into your daily programming can be easy and inexpensive – and it can bring such a range of benefits for children, ECEs, and families!

When young children engage in physical literacy and active play, they can better cope with stress, build resilience, and start on their path toward a healthy and active life. 

Watch this webinar where Dawne Clark, PhD, Early Years Physical Literacy discusses:

  • What physical literacy (PL) and active play look like in the early years
  • The benefits of PL and active play for children, educators, and families
  • “Infusing” PL into everyday activities 
  • How to get children moving again and active for life after the pandemic
  • The Active for Life website, tools and resources

CMAS Webinar: Supporting Newcomer Children through Active Play: Teaming up with Active for Life!

Incorporating physical literacy into your daily programming can be easy and inexpensive – and it can bring such a range of benefits for children, ECEs, and families!

When young children engage in physical literacy and active play, they can better cope with stress, build resilience, and start on their path toward a healthy and active life. 

In this exciting new webinar, participants will join special guest, Dawne Clark, PhD, Early Years Physical Literacy, to learn about and discuss:

  • What physical literacy (PL) and active play look like in the early years
  • The benefits of PL and active play for children, educators, and families
  • “Infusing” PL into everyday activities 
  • How to get children moving again and active for life after the pandemic
  • The Active for Life website, tools and resources

We’ll also be announcing some exciting new opportunities for you to participate in!

NOTE: This webinar is for IRCC-funded CNC programs. The webinar recording will be available to the public early next month.


WEBINAR: Culture and Children’s Challenging Behaviour

Like the children in our care, every teacher is different. We come from different contexts and cultures, and everything we think, say, and do is processed through the filter of our own culture. Culture influences our values, beliefs, gender roles, family structures, language, and even our teaching styles. The ability to understand and celebrate differences is more important now than ever. In this webinar, participants will explore the dynamics of culture in shaping teachers’ expectations and children’s behavior.

Webinar: Early Childhood Behaviour Guidance Practices and the Role of Implicit Bias

In this paradigm-shifting webinar, participants will learn about implicit racial bias and its role in behavior management practices and policies in early childhood programs. This training is a great opportunity for us to examine how our own implicit biases may affect how we manage the behavior of young children of color in our programs.

HiMama Helps Webinar: How to teach children to embrace differences

Let's talk about how young children develop their understanding of differences! Most importantly, this webinar provides practical strategies that CNC staff can use to encourage young children to talk about, understand and appreciate differences between people and places.

CMAS Webinar: School Readiness with Newcomer Centre of Peel

School readiness means that children are ready for school, and families are ready to support their children's learning - and CNC programs play an important role in preparing newcomer children and families for this transition. In this webinar, participants joined Jacqueline MoonSammy, Aisha Ilyas, and their team from Newcomer Centre of Peel (NCP), to talk about how they noticed a need in their CNC community, and developed a program to support school readiness for the children in their program. They talked about some of the challenges they faced, as well as some helpful tips and strategies you can use in your program to help prepare children for kindergarten in the fall!