Child Development

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!

VIDEO: How Early Childhood Experiences Affect Lifelong Health and Learning

How is ongoing, severe stress and adversity in early childhood connected to chronic disease in adults? And, what can we do about it? In this animated video, learn what the latest science tells us about how early experiences affect not only early learning and school readiness, but also lifelong health. Challenge yourself to think about how we can address the sources of these problems. And, consider how integrating primary care into every aspect of early childhood programming may be an important part of the solution.

Brain-Building Through Play: Activities for Infants, Toddlers and Children

From infancy on, play is an important part of a child’s life. Through games and playful activities, children can practice and strengthen important skills that will help them throughout their lives, including learning to focus their attention, strengthening their working memory, and developing basic self-control. This series of handouts provide suggestions for games and play-based activities based on a child’s age, so they are perfect for inspiring educators and sharing with parents!

WEBINAR – Big Conversations with Young Children: Discussing Questions, Worries, and Fears

In our work with young children, we sometimes encounter unexpected—and hard-to-answer—questions. This edWebinar addresses the big adult questions children sometimes ask that may cause us to pause, silence the child, or deflect the concern. The webinar guides participants so that they can be prepared to answer difficult questions respectfully and in ways that are developmentally appropriate for even the youngest children. 


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

WEBINAR: Happiness in the “Baby Room”: Supporting the Well-Being of Infant-Toddler Care Professionals

Happiness and well-being can have a huge impact on the adults and children who spend their days in infant rooms. In this webinar, participants will learn an ‘action plan’ of concrete tips for not only supporting play-based learning for the babies, but also ideas for creating a sense of community belonging, safety and security, and professional identity for your CNC team.

Let’s team up with Active for Life!

Research shows that the pandemic may have a lasting impact on the physical activity of children - and we need to get kids active! So we’ve teamed up with Active for Life to promote physical literacy in our programs. Active for Life is a privately funded national charitable initiative that helps Canadians raise kids who love to move. At Activeforlife.com  parents and educators will find fun activities, engaging articles and free resources to get kids active, healthy, and happy. Get all you need by connecting with Active for Life via their social media channels and subscribe to their parent and “pro” newsletters. Watch for an upcoming webinar as well as Active for Life articles and resources to help you incorporate active play into each day.

Multilingual Activities Guide: Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence

This activities guide offers a variety of age-appropriate activities and games to support and strengthen various components of executive function and self-regulation in children. Each chapter contains activities suitable for a different age groups, ranging from infants to adolescents. The full guide is also available in Arabic! And two sections—5 to 7 year-olds and 7 to 12 year olds—are available in French.

Teaching Emotions to Young Children: Tips and Tricks

With all of the research out there on emotions, the studies are far from complete, but one thing is very clear – naming our feelings helps us develop skills to manage our emotions. This article is full of tips and tricks to help us give the children in our programs the important emotional tools and language they need.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math for Preschoolers?

Lately, everyone seems to be talking about STEAM. It’s a hot topic in the world of education, but what does it really mean?  STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and math. You may think some of these subjects seem lofty for young children to grasp - and in some ways, that’s true. But young children can build a strong foundation for future learning by exploring STEAM preschool skills and concepts through play.  And there are lots of STEAM activities that you can do with children to keep them engaged and learning using simple household items!