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Professional Development for Early Childhood Professionals, Educators & Schools

Improve and strengthen your early childhood skills with Erikson.

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Empowering Professionals from Infancy Through 3rd Grade

Knowledge and skills to support young children.

A child’s first 1,800 days are vitally important in their development and play an important role throughout their lives. Positive early experiences can lead to higher academic achievement, better health, and greater overall well-being later in life. Strengthening the relationships between child and parent, or child and caregiver are essential to providing high-quality care for all children.

The care of children from Pre-K through Kindergarten are vital to a child’s continued success. Erikson’s Early Teaching and Learning Academy provides comprehensive learning and professional development programs for schools, districts, and systems in developmental areas of social and emotional learning, early literacy, early math, and technology. These programs are intended for early childhood teachers and administrators both nationally and internationally.

Erikson works with educators and learning communities to transform early childhood programs through a developmentally informed approach that is relationship-based, marked by reflective practice, and is designed to be culturally and linguistically responsive.

Man and child playing with blocks

Early Math Collaborative

Erikson’s Early Math Collaborative increases the quality of foundational math education in early childhood settings. The Collaborative provides professional development to teachers, and other early education professionals and conducts research to generate new knowledge about approaches to teacher development and effective methods of early math instruction.

Learn More about the Early Math Collaborative

Kids With Globe International

Project Connect

Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) is a required, annual assessment of all children entering public school kindergarten in Illinois. Using KIDS as a reference point, Project Connect aims to improve kindergarten teachers’ ability to observe, document, interpret, and make use of assessment data to inform instruction. This year-long professional development for kindergarten teachers is in partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education.

Learn more about Project Connect

Social Service and Higher Education teacher with children.

Technology in Early Childhood Center

The Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center at Erikson empowers early childhood professionals to make informed decisions about the appropriate use of technology with children from birth to age 8. Through carefully selected resources and real-world examples, the TEC Center strengthens professionals’ digital literacy and their ability to intentionally select, use, integrate, and evaluate technology in the classroom and other early childhood settings.

Learn More about our TEC Center

Rebecca Vonderlack Navarro
Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro
Manager of Education Policy and Research, Latino Policy Institute
“ I’m not an expert in math at all, but working with Erikson, I was surprised how much I learned about it and how important early math is. I’m excited to learn how to further support parent engagement around early math. ”
Staci Sontoski
Staci Sontoski
Milwaukee Child Welfare Partnership
“ When I first saw the FAN presented, I said, ‘This is it! This is the tool for helping home visitors engage and connect better with families.’ I have seen professionals develop a whole new understanding of their practice with families and implement strategies that help them to truly partner with parents. ”

Professional Training Opportunities for Early Childhood Care Professionals

FAN Family

Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) Training

Erikson trains and consults with organizations that want to adopt our approach to building better relationships with parents, called Facilitating Attuned Interactions, which we refer to as FAN.

Learn more about FAN

Town Square

Town Square – Early Learning & Care Resources

Town Square connects family care professionals in Illinois to free resources and includes professional development designed for family child care that counts for clock hours and toward Illinois state credentials.

Learn more about our Town Square

We Are an IL-EMPOWER Approved Learning Partner

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