Early Childhood Investigations

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Early Childhood Investigations is your gateway to inspiring, research-based professional development. Since 2009, our free webinar series has brought together authors, researchers, and leaders in early care and education to share timely insights and spark meaningful conversations across the workforce. We believe high-quality professional development should be accessible, practical, and immediately useful. ECI is a movement that empowers directors, administrators, and teachers to elevate their practice and strengthen outcomes for children and families. https://ecewebinars.com/spotify

  1. 10h ago

    Narratives That Nurture: Storytelling as a Tool for Connection and Change in Preschool Classrooms by Kate Shelley

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareStep into the world of storytelling and discover its transformative power in early childhood education. In this heart-centered, inspiring session, you’ll explore how storytelling can do far more than entertain - it can uplift, empower, and connect. In this webinar, storytelling expert Kate Shelley will help you uncover how the simple act of sharing stories can become a powerful tool for supporting children’s communication and language development, building social-emotional skills, and offering hope - especially for children with special needs and disabilities, as well as those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Whether you're working to strengthen relationships, encourage resilience, or promote inclusion, storytelling offers a bridge between hearts and minds. Through thoughtful reflection and real-life examples, Kate will guide you to see storytelling as a vital practice in your toolkit - one that can improve life chances, promote equity, and remind us all of the magic we hold when we listen, connect, and share. Join us for insight and inspiration - and walk away ready to use stories to make a lasting impact. By the end of this session, you will be able to: Describe how storytelling supports communication, language, and social-emotional development in young children. Identify ways to use storytelling as a tool for inclusion, especially for children with SEND or those facing disadvantage. Explain how Tales Toolkit has promoted resilience and supported children’s developing confidence and independence. Reflect on how storytelling can contribute to long-term outcomes and life chances for all children. Feel inspired to create story-rich environments that bring joy, connection, and hope to your daily practice.

  2. 5d ago

    From Turnover to Stability: How ECE Salary Scales Drive Retention and Equity by Dr. Tamar Andrews

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareEarly childhood educators are the foundation of quality programs—yet high turnover, wage inequity, and inconsistent compensation remain persistent challenges across the field. This webinar examines how structured salary scales can transform ECE workforce stability by creating transparent, equitable pathways for teacher compensation. Designed for program directors, administrators, and early education leaders, this session pairs the evidence on fair pay structures with practical, immediately applicable guidance for building a salary scale—whether you're starting from scratch or refining an existing structure—along with realistic strategies for funding it over time. By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Describe the research linking structured salary scales to improved teacher retention, reduced turnover costs, and greater pay equity across race, gender, and credential levels. Design a draft salary scale framework for their own program, including credential- and experience-based steps and transparent placement criteria. Identify at least three funding strategies — including grants, public investments, and blended financing — to sustain competitive compensation over time.

  3. Sep 8

    Emotionally Responsive Leadership: Leading with Regulation, Clarity, and Capacity by Dr. Yehudis Smith

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareLeadership in early childhood education is deeply emotional work. Every tone you use, every decision you make, and every reaction you have quietly shapes your school’s culture. In this powerful session, you will explore how your nervous system state, decision-making pace, and stress responses directly influence staff morale, clarity, and performance. Leadership breakdown rarely begins with incompetence—it begins with capacity strain. When expectations exceed emotional and structural capacity, pressure replaces presence, reactivity replaces reflection, and culture begins to erode. In this webinar, you will learn how to recognize the early signs of overload in yourself and your team—and shift from survival-based leadership to sustainable, capacity-aligned leadership. You will examine what it means to lead from regulation rather than urgency, reduce invisible decision load, and coach staff through moments of dysregulation without absorbing their stress. By integrating Emotionally Responsive Practice (ERP), leadership psychology, and capacity-based thinking, you will leave with practical tools to design systems that absorb pressure instead of transferring it. If you are ready to move from managing stress to designing for stability—and from reacting under pressure to leading with clarity and intention—this session will provide both the insight and the strategies to help you do it. Learning Objectives By the end of this session, you will be able to: Understand how your nervous system state influences staff performance, morale, and school culture. Identify signs of personal and organizational capacity strain before breakdown occurs. Apply practical regulation tools during high-stakes leadership moments. Use ERP principles to guide coaching conversations with dysregulated staff. Identify structural shifts that support an emotionally responsive, capacity-aligned school culture.

  4. Sep 2

    Coaching That Sticks: What to Say When Teachers Resist Feedback by Jaime Rechkemmer

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareYou’ve been there. You prepare for a coaching conversation, choose your words carefully, and still, something doesn’t land. The teacher shuts down, gets defensive, or nods along without any real change. It’s frustrating, and it can make even the most dedicated leader question their impact. In this engaging and practical session, you’ll learn how to turn those moments into meaningful opportunities for growth. You’ll explore why resistance happens — and, more importantly, what to do about it in real time. Through relatable scenarios and real-world language, you’ll build confidence in navigating difficult conversations with clarity and care, and learn how to shift teachers from resistant to reflective. Together, we’ll move beyond compliance-driven feedback and into coaching that builds trust, reflection, and ownership. You’ll walk away with specific phrases you can use, simple frameworks to guide your approach, and strategies to help teachers feel seen, supported, and motivated to improve their practice. Whether you’re coaching a new teacher who lacks confidence or a seasoned educator who resists change, this session will meet you where you are. You’ll leave with tools you can use immediately — because effective coaching isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about knowing how to ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time. If you’re ready to shift your coaching from frustrating to effective — and finally see it stick — this session is for you. Learning Objectives Explain the underlying reasons teachers may resist feedback and how resistance shows up in coaching interactions. Apply effective, strengths-based coaching language and questioning techniques to reduce defensiveness and increase engagement. Analyze real-world coaching scenarios to determine the most effective responses for promoting reflection and growth. Design a practical coaching plan that addresses a current challenge and supports sustained improvement in teacher practice.

  5. Sep 1

    How to talk to infants and toddlers while they play: language that fosters connection, confidence, and creativity by Cara Tyrrell, M.Ed.

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareGet ready to play as you learn to speak infant and toddler! Explore how intentional language during play helps infants and toddlers build meaning, connection, confidence, and a lasting love of learning. Grounded in play-based neuroscience, this workshop examines the powerful relationship between adult expressive language and the ways young children process, understand, and respond to the world around them. Participants will look closely at how language supports child-led play, self-exploration, and early problem-solving. The session will introduce different types of prosocial play and explore how specific phrases can nurture curiosity, creativity, and communication in developmentally appropriate ways. Through a linguistic lens, participants will also examine common habits in adult language, consider how young children interpret what they hear, and identify more effective ways to communicate during everyday interactions. Based on The Talking Triangle Framework from Talk to Them Early and Often, this session brings theory to life through modeled examples, video clips, and ready-to-use sentence starters that participants can immediately apply in the classroom or at home. Educators will leave with a practical approach to using language during play in ways that support cognition, strengthen early identity, and foster deeper connection in the first three years. Learning objectives: Explain the difference between receptive and expressive language in preverbal infants and toddlers. Name three types of child-led play and describe their early learning benefits. Identify five sentence starters that support connection, encourage curiosity, and cultivate creative thinking in infants and toddlers. Apply intentional language strategies by generating developmentally appropriate phrases for everyday play and interactions.

  6. Aug 26

    The Kids are All Right; But What About the Teachers? How ECE Leaders Build Educator Community to Sustain Well-Being and Retention by Dr. Cathi Miller and Dr. Keena Mosley

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareEarly childhood educators are often expected to give endlessly—to children, families, and programs—while their own well-being is rarely prioritized. For program leaders, this raises an important question: How are the adults in your program really doing? In this webinar, Dr. Cathi Miller—professor, consultant, and host of the podcast Developmentally Inappropriate with Dr. Cathi—is joined by Dr. Keena Mosley, an ECE professor and leadership coach, to explore how administrators can champion strong educator communities that transform program culture, reduce burnout, and support long-term teacher retention. Participants will examine how intentional leadership practices can foster belonging, collaboration, and resilience. Through reflection and practical examples, administrators will learn strategies for cultivating supportive educator communities within their programs, creating environments where teachers feel valued, connected, and able to thrive alongside the children they serve. By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to: Examine the relationship between educator well-being, professional connection, and teacher retention in early childhood programs. Apply leadership practices and program-culture strategies that reduce educator isolation and support staff well-being. Implement practical leadership strategies that strengthen educator communities, prevent teacher burnout, and promote long-term sustainability.

  7. Aug 25

    It's All About the Brain! How to Use Music-Making to Unlock Baby's Brain for Reading by Ann C. Kay, M.A.

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareCurrent neuroscience reveals a remarkable truth: the way young brains process sound builds the foundation for language and literacy, and music-making actively strengthens that foundation. Join Ann C. Kay, M.A., Co-founder of Rock ’n’ Read Project, for a fun, engaging session where you’ll sing (on mute!), explore the science of early brain development, and learn how to use music-making to help babies and toddlers build essential pre-reading skills. No prior music training is required. Long before a child says “Mama” or “Dada,” they begin “warbling”—experimenting with pitch and rhythm. Through singing, caregivers and educators can nurture connection while strengthening auditory processing, auditory memory, phonological awareness, and beat synchronization, or the ability to keep a steady beat. Research consistently links beat-keeping with later reading achievement, making everyday musical experiences a powerful tool for early learning. In this high-energy webinar, Ann will show you how to turn brain research into simple, practical “Monday morning” strategies that support infant and toddler development. Together, you’ll practice foundational music-making skills such as keeping a steady beat and matching pitch, while discovering how daily musical experiences build “musical fitness” over time. Like physical fitness, musical fitness develops through regular practice and supports the cognitive growth necessary for language and literacy acquisition. By singing the day away, you can create a joyful, nurturing environment while helping lay the groundwork for lifelong learning. Learning Outcomes Participants will be able to: Examine the research linking auditory processing, auditory memory, phonological awareness, and beat synchronization to future reading success. Apply age-appropriate music-making techniques such as beat-keeping and pitch matching with infants and toddlers. Implement daily musical practices to support long-term cognitive development in infants and toddlers.

  8. Aug 19

    Beyond the Mess—A Structured Approach to Process Art: Four Core Activities That Spark Creativity, Exploration, and Intentional Learning by Faigie Kobre

    RESOURCES Watch the full webinar hereJoin our newsletter! Earn your Professional Development hours with FREE sessions delivered right to your inbox every weekCheck out the producer of ECI, Playground, the Child Care Management SoftwareWhat if you could stop chasing endless new art ideas—and still offer rich, meaningful creative experiences all year long? In this practical and inspiring session, Faigie Kobre, early childhood educator, former preschool director, and creator of the Beyond Copycat Crafts framework, invites educators to rethink how they approach process art in the classroom. Many educators feel pressure to constantly introduce new and exciting art activities to keep children engaged. Yet in reality, four core process art activities can be expanded, adapted, and revisited in countless ways—enough to sustain an entire year of creative exploration. In this webinar, Faigie will walk participants step-by-step through these four essential activities and demonstrate how they can be used over and over again with fresh purpose and intention. This session is rooted in her Creative Trio PAC Framework, where P = Process Art, offering educators a repeatable system that replaces “cookie-cutter” crafts with meaningful, child-led creative experiences. You’ll learn how to balance structure and freedom, support creativity without chaos, and confidently guide open-ended art that is developmentally appropriate, engaging, and manageable—no matter your classroom setting. You’ll leave with a clear framework, adaptable ideas, and renewed confidence in your ability to foster authentic creativity without the overwhelm. By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Identify the four core process art activities that can sustain creative work across an entire year Distinguish between copycat crafts and true process art Apply the Creative Trio PAC framework to plan intentional, open-ended art experiences Design developmentally appropriate art invitations that balance structure and creative freedom Reduce planning overwhelm while increasing meaningful creative engagement

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Early Childhood Investigations is your gateway to inspiring, research-based professional development. Since 2009, our free webinar series has brought together authors, researchers, and leaders in early care and education to share timely insights and spark meaningful conversations across the workforce. We believe high-quality professional development should be accessible, practical, and immediately useful. ECI is a movement that empowers directors, administrators, and teachers to elevate their practice and strengthen outcomes for children and families. https://ecewebinars.com/spotify

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