Brain Development in the Early Years

A self paced course with Elise Waghorn

Deepen your knowledge of infant and toddler brain development in the first five years and learn how to create the conditions for children to thrive.

Did you know:

  • By the age of five a child's brain is 90% developed. 
  • Early brain development has a lasting impact of future learning.
  • The quality of interactions a child has in the first five years of a life (positive or negative) helps shape how the brain develops.
  • A newborn baby has all the neurons it will ever need across its life.


Improved knowledge of brain development in the early years empowers educators to confidently and sensitively respond to infant and toddler behaviours.


This self-paced course is designed to deepen educators’ understanding of infant and toddler brain development and how to create the conditions for them to flourish and thrive.

Learn practical strategies and gain confidence to plan for children’s play and holistic wellbeing, informed by a deep understanding of how the brain develops.

Checklist

Develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of infant and toddlers brain development

  • Develop knowledge and understanding around brain development.

  • Respond sensitively and appropriately to children’s needs.

  • Implement practical strategies to support infants’ and toddlers’ wellbeing and brain growth.

  • Be empowered to make a difference in your planning and programming.

Course curriculum

    1. Recorded Webinar - Brain Development

    1. Connection Cup Mindmap

    1. Baby’s brain development: 0-3 months

    2. Nurturing Your Child's Early Brain Development

    3. Bruce Perry, Early Childhood Brain Development

    1. Brain Development in Children

    2. Early Years Brain Development

    1. Brain Development Reflection

    2. Final reflection

    3. Get in touch with the team at Phoenix Support

    4. Other Professional and Personal Development Opportunities

About this course

  • $48.00
  • 15 lessons
  • 1 hour of video content

Link theory, research, and evidence to your practice and planning

This course will show you how to incorporate the following theories into your planning.

  • The Phoenix Cups

    A shared language, an approach, a revolutionary framework. Grounded in the theory and evidence from Positive Psychology and Humanist Psychology, the Phoenix Cups Framework is a powerful tool for understanding and supporting human behaviour. This course incorporates a focus on meeting the human need for Connection.

  • Guidance Approach

    The Guidance Approach is centred on the idea that all children’s behaviours are driven by an attempt to meet a need. Dan Gartrell stresses that an effective learning community is one that fosters creativity through autonomy.

  • Icon & text

    Each course is informed by contemporary references to peer-reviewed scholarly articles and highly credible sources, so you can be assured the content is valid, trusted, and reliable. Full citation lists provided.

Bonus material

ou will get instant access to a resource library as well as a two hour live presentation

  • Videos

    This course includes video content to provide further depth to your knowledge and understanding.

  • Downloadable PDF's

    Downloadable resources that every educator needs for understanding how to support infant and toddlers brain development.

  • Internet resources

    Web links to key learning material and helpful educator resources.

Your Facilitator

With Elise Waghorn

Facilitator, Education and Care Mentor Elise Waghorn

Elise is a huge advocate for giving children a voice in things that directly affect them. She has a passion for play-based learning and uses a strength-based approach with coaching and mentoring. Elise believes she gets the best out of educators by recognising their individual strengths and making sure they can be incorporated within their practice. Elise is the person you want in your corner! She recognises and empathises the challenging (and wonderful) job that educators have, having worked in services previously. Elise joined Phoenix Support for educators in 2016 bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in education and care. In fact, Elise has taught over 21 units in The Bachelor of Early Childhood and Primary and Masters of Early Childhood and Masters of Education. In addition to her coaching and mentoring with Phoenix support for educators Elise is a collective mentor to students in the graduate program at the University of Melbourne. She is also a PhD candidate, and her studies explore scholarly Habitus in children's lifeworld's by exploring high stakes testing and educational capital. All her workshops are theory-based, as Elise heavily researches the literature to provide as much current and peer-reviewed information as possible. Elise currently delivers a number of courses and workshops including the Holistic Infant and Toddler Development series, the Fostering Children’s Wellbeing series, the Protecting Children’s Rights educator training bundle, the Educators' Toolkit for Behaviour workshop, and the Documenting to Discover workshop. She loves developing content-specific information for individual services to meet their needs.

FAQ

  • How long do I have access to the course?

    You have access to this series for 6 weeks. We estimate it will take you about 4.5 hours to complete the whole series, so we have allowed for 1.5 hour per week and an extra week for catch up for each course.

  • Will I get a certificate?

    To receive your certificate, you must click on 'Complete & Continue' on every page of the course. Once you've done this your certificate download button should come up in the top left corner of your course, where the progress bar is.

What participants are saying about this course:

5 star rating

Brain development in the Early years

Dawn Sproule

Well rounded information. Didn't just focus on one area.

Well rounded information. Didn't just focus on one area.

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