Live Trainings

Childcare Professional Development

Do you have an upcoming professional development day for your staff and you're looking for high quality training? In addition to purchasing bulk on-demand courses, IMPACT offers live childcare professional development. Our live trainings are led by experienced early childhood educators and include resources, interactive activities, discussions, and hands-on learning experiences. We also offer the option to have our trainers come to your center for on-site training.

Early Learning Professional Development

IMPACT's live training
is perfect for anyone who works with young children, including teachers,
directors, administrators, and family childcare providers. Our
courses are designed to help you build your skills and knowledge
so that you can provide the best possible care for the young children
in your program.

Inclusive Early Learning Training

We also offer a variety of
training on inclusive education, creating a learning environment
that is welcoming and accessible to all children. Our inclusive
early learning training will help you learn how to create a more inclusive
setting or program and how to support children
with special needs, disabilities, and challenging behaviors.

See below for a list of our currently offered live trainings.

Recommended duration of each live IMPACT training is indicated below. Training durations may be flexible and can be adjusted for your needs. Live trainings are based on the same foundation as online courses but include additional interactive learning activities. All training topics are also offered on our online, on-demand platform.

To reserve a live training, 6 weeks notice is recommended to secure your spot.  Pricing and availability will be shared by an IMPACT team member once you submit the Request Live Training form

Live trainings are offered virtually via Zoom nationwide. On-site trainings are available and additional travel surcharges will apply. Please submit a Live Training Request form for fee structures.
2.5 Hours
Autism Spectrum Disorder: Language and Communication Strategies
Description:
Are you ready to expand your knowledge of practical strategies for helping children with autism build their vocabulary? Do you wish you had techniques to communicate more effectively with your students?

This training will teach you how to:
• Decide what words to teach first to meet your individual students’ learning goals
• Use songs for language learning
• Implement visual strategies like sign language, visual schedules, and First/Then schedules
• Apply proven techniques for supporting language development to the unique way children with autism process language

By the end, you will be able to:
• Expand your knowledge to help children with autism build their vocabulary
• Communicate more effectively with your students
• Implement visual strategies to reinforce language development in children with autism

This high-quality autism training is perfect for early childhood professionals, child care providers, parents, and people interested in supporting language development in children with autism.
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2 Hours
Beyond the Sensory Table: Classroom Strategies for Sensory Play
Description:
In this sensory training, learn how to use sensory play to promote learning and development in all children.

In this course, you will:
  • Learn about the eight senses and how they develop from infancy through childhood
  • Explore experiential activities that bring our sensory systems to life
  • Discover how to incorporate sensory play into all classroom routines
  • Get over 50 fun sensory activities to do with your class
  • Find new ways to jazz up your sensory table with toys and materials that get kids excited to use it.


This course is perfect for: child care providers, early childhood educators, teachers, parents, and anyone who works with young children.
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2 HOURS
BYE-BYE BITING! STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTION & RESPONSE
Description:
Biting is common, especially in early childhood. This challenging behavior training will provide practical strategies to prevent biting, how to respond to bites, and communicate with families effectively.

Features:
• Learn about the causes of biting and how to prevent it
• Design a plan for responding to bites calmly and effectively
• Practice communicating with families about biting in a clear, respectful, and supportive way

This training offers valuable opportunities to learn how to address biting in a safe, supportive, and effective way.
This training is perfect for early childhood educators, child care providers, and parents.
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2.5 Hours

Challenging Behaviors: Collecting Data & Creating Behavior Support Plans

Description:

Are there challenging behaviors in your classroom that make you scratch your head and wonder “what’s going on?” Have you tried a bunch of strategies and the behaviors keep happening? Even the most experienced teachers sometimes struggle with challenging behaviors. This course will give you the tools you need to understand why behaviors keep happening and a step-by-step guide to creating a plan with strategies that will actually work. You’ll leave with everything you need to complete ABC charts and analyze behavior data for students in your classroom. We’ll walk you through real-life behavior support plans and give you a customizable template of your own, so you feel confident writing a plan and putting it into practice.


2 Hours
Challenging Behaviors: Creating Behavior Support Plans
Description:
Are there challenging behaviors in your classroom that keep happening even though you’ve tried a bunch of strategies? Once you’ve mastered the art of data collection to understand challenging behaviors in young children, this course will give you the skills to take the next step and write a behavior support plan that’s actually effective. We’ll walk you through real-life examples of behavior support plans and give you a customizable template to write a behavior support plan of your own, so you feel confident writing a plan and putting it into practice to support the students in your classroom. In this course you’ll learn how to identify preventative strategies that make challenging behaviors less likely, respond when challenging behaviors do happen. You will also learn how to teach replacement skills and positive behaviors, partner with families around challenging behaviors, and bring it all together in a comprehensive document that gets everyone on the same page.a good fit for your needs.
2.5 Hours
Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder
Description:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects 1 in every 36 children. This means you will likely have a child with ASD in your classroom every 2-3 years.

This autism training will give you the knowledge and skills to understand and support any young child with ASD.

We will cover the following topics:
  • What is ASD?
  • Signs and characteristics of ASD in children
  • How to partner with families
  • Quality inclusive practices for supporting children with ASD


This training is a suggested pre-requisite for IMPACT's Autism Spectrum Disorder training series. 
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2 Hours
Introduction to Inclusion in Early Learning
Description:
This early learning training will introduce you to the concept and definition of inclusion through an equity lens.

We will explore the benefits of inclusive practices in early education for typically and non-typically developing children and the common barriers to inclusion.

We will also discuss solving these challenges and creating inclusive environments that support all children.

By the end of this training, you will have the knowledge and skills you need to:
• Understand the importance of inclusion in early childhood education
• Identify barriers to inclusion and how to overcome them
• Create inclusive environments that support all children
• Implement effective practices that promote inclusion

This training is perfect for early education practitioners, child care providers, and families.
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2.5 hours
Mastering Challenging Behaviors: The Essentials
Description:
Are you seeking effective early childhood inclusion strategies to address challenging behavior in your classroom?

In this course, you will:
  • Learn the causes of challenging behavior in young children
  • Discover practical, actionable strategies to promote positive behavior
  • Reframe how you think about behavior in a way that builds connection and strong relationships with all students
  • Understand how trauma affects behavior and identify strategies to support children with sensory seeking or avoiding behaviors
  • Master the basics of data collection and ABC charts to pinpoint the root causes of challenging behavior and identify the right solutions


This course is perfect for early childhood educators, child care providers, parents, and people who want to effectively address challenging behavior in an inclusive environment. 
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2 Hours
Partnering with Families – Strategies for Successful Communication
Description:
Communication and collaboration with families in early education are essential in supporting child development and identifying developmental delays or concerns, promoting learning, and providing a supportive environment for all children.

This resource will help you to:
• Understand the benefits of close collaboration with families
• Identify barriers to family participation and how to overcome them
• Develop communication strategies that promote cooperation with families
• Create a supportive environment for all children

We will cover the following topics:
• The importance of family-centered, quality inclusive practices in early childhood education
• How to build relationships with families
• How to communicate effectively with families
• How to involve families in the classroom
• How to accommodate special healthcare needs

This training is perfect for early learning instructors, child care providers, and anyone working with children.
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
2 Hours
Sensory Strategies and the brain: promoting self-regulation and learning
Description:
Do you want to learn how to recognize and support individual sensory needs in the classroom?

This course supports you to:
• Identify sensory-seeking and sensory-avoiding behaviors
• Understand the brain-based science of sensory regulation
• Create a sensory-rich classroom environment
• Design individualized sensory plans for your students
• Help get children regulated and ready to learn

We will also provide you with a printable Sensory Matrix template you can customize and use in your classroom.

This resource is perfect for early childhood educators, child care providers, families, and people interested in learning more about sensory regulation and how to cater to sensory needs in the classroom.
Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
1.5 Hours
supporting behavior with zoning & shadowing
Description:
This training is part of our Challenging Behaviors Series for early learning teachers and administrators. In this session, we will explore the ways that zoning and shadowing in the classroom can reduce challenging behaviors. We will demonstrate methods for overall effective classroom zoning, as well as provide templates for teachers to map their own classrooms. Zoning is a strategy that teachers are likely already doing, ensuring that appropriate supervision occurs throughout the day. But what happens when zoning isn’t enough to capture the moments in the classroom that lead to challenging behaviors? Shadowing is a more focused observation/supervision strategy that can be helpful in these situations. We will discuss and demonstrate ways that shadowing can be effective in supporting specific children in the classroom.
2 Hours

Transforming Group Mealtimes: Strategies for Picky Eating & Food Exploration​

Description:
Are you looking for ways to help the picky eaters in your classroom? Do you have any students who eat only one or two favorite foods? 

In this course, you will:
  • Learn strategies to promote food exploration and make the most of group mealtime in your program
  • See videos of real-world classrooms using family-style dining
  • Discover actionable steps for involving kids in mealtimes
  • Explore the sensory aspects of eating and how predictability impacts kids' willingness to try new foods
  • Learn how to effectively respond to common challenges like throwing and dumping food
  • Identify ways to individualize mealtime to successfully include all children and abilities in mealtime

    This course is perfect for early childhood educators, child care providers, parents, and anyone who want to build their toolbox to support picky eaters and promote food exploration in young children.
    Complete the form below for next steps and to see if this training is a good fit for your needs.
1.5 Hours
Understanding Challenging Behavior Through Data Collection
Description:
Are there challenging behaviors in your classroom that make you scratch your head and wonder “what’s going on?” Have you tried a bunch of strategies and the behaviors keep happening? Even the most experienced teachers sometimes struggle with challenging behaviors even though they know that all behavior is communication and it’s our job to understand the messages that children are giving us. Kids with challenging behavior are good kids who just need our support to learn and thrive. This course will give you the tools you need to understand what behaviors are communicating and why they keep happening. You’ll leave with everything you need to identify antecedents and consequences for behavior, collect data using ABC charts and scatterplots, and the skills to analyze behavior data to uncover patterns. Once you understand the function of behavior you can identify effective strategies that meet the needs of the children in your classroom and set them up to be successful. 
2 Hours
visual supports for young children
Description:
This course gives you everything you need to know to use visuals with your entire classroom, and teaches you how to customize visuals for students with challenging behaviors, disabilities, or other complex needs. You’ll see dozens of examples of visuals from real classrooms and learn tips and tricks that make them easy to use -- so kids actually pay attention to them! We’ll cover visual schedules, First/Then visuals, sequence strips, transitions visuals, choice boards, as well as visuals for problem-solving, self-regulation and more. You’ll leave with tons of materials and with the knowledge to use visual supports to improve children’s behavior, make communication easier, and increase independence for all children.
Northwest Center Kids IMPACT has five years of experience delivering online childcare courses and training.

Years of Experience Delivering Training

professionals trained

different training topics

Inclusion-Focused Training Topics

All of our training content has a focus on the inclusion of children with challenging behaviors and disabilities.
Our online childcare courses & live training focus on inclusion of children with disabilities and challenging behaviors.
Introduction to Inclusion in Early Learning
“The presenters are clearly skilled and passionate about working with challenging behaviors and helping others to learn effective strategies. They kept such a pleasant pace on an enormous topic. Their graphics, references, video clips were are highly effective too. Loved the Closed Captioning.”

- Childcare Provider

Our professional development resources are grounded in research, evidence, and quality inclusive practices in early childhood education, child development, infant and early childhood mental health, behavioral health, attachment theory, trauma-informed practices, and early childhood therapeutic services.
Courses are provided with a goal of embracing, affirming, and promoting neurodiversity. While all course and live training materials are developed based on gathered current evidence and input from advocates, information is always evolving. Every effort is made to incorporate new thoughts, experiences and perspectives as course content is updated.

Are on-demand courses a better fit for you or your program?

Select courses from our diverse library of topics
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