Training Webinars | First3years

Professional Training Webinars

Embark on a journey of professional growth with our monthly webinars, curated for First3Years members and valued guests. These webinars serve as a valuable resource, offering crucial insights and best practices tailored for early childhood professionals dedicated to the well-being of infants, toddlers, and their families. As a member, you gain free access to these enriching sessions, providing you with a unique opportunity to stay abreast of the latest developments in the field. Join our vibrant community and partake in these engaging webinars, designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools essential for fostering optimal development in the youngest members of our society. Elevate your expertise and make a lasting impact with every webinar session.

Quarter 2: Trauma, Foster Care, and Healing-Centered Support

Infants and young children in foster care often experience early trauma, attachment disruptions, and profound grief, even before they have words to express it. This quarter’s training series will focus on how early childhood professionals can support both children and caregivers in navigating these challenges, fostering stability, healing, and relational safety—whether a child is placed with relatives, foster families, or preparing for reunification.

We’ll explore how trauma shapes attachment, how children’s behaviors often send mixed signals, and how caregivers can feel overwhelmed, self-doubtful, or even emotionally detached when faced with these challenges. Each session will highlight why caregivers need more than training-they need support, validation, and community to remain steady and responsive.

Whether you’re a home visitor, early interventionist, child welfare professional, mental health provider, educator, or caregiver, this series will offer concrete strategies for supporting children while also recognizing and addressing the emotional realities of caregiving.

2025 Webinar Schedule

Q2 Webinars

Birth Matters: The Importance of a Positive Pregnancy & Birth Experience on Early Childhood Attachment

April 28, 2025

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Summary: Birth experiences and outcomes profoundly impact the birthing person. A positive birth experience lowers parent / caregiver stress, resulting in increased attachment and positive development.

Suggested Endorsement Competencies: Pregnancy and Early Parenthood | Infant/Young Child Development & Behavior | Infant/Young Child/Family Centered Practice | Attachment, Separation, Trauma, Grief & Loss

From Participation to Transformation: Receiving Reflective Supervision with Intention

May 23, 2025

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Summary: Professionals often ask, what does it mean to participate in Reflective Supervision? While there is much training on how to provide reflective supervision, training on how to receive reflective supervision is limited. This training will help to develop skills in self-reflection, open communication, and an exploration of emotion language and regulation.

Suggested Endorsement Competencies: Building & Maintaning Relationships | Speaking | Self Awareness | Curiosity | Emotional Response

When Trauma Shows Up in Tiny Moments: Understanding Behaviors in Young Children in Foster Care

May 28, 2025

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Summary: For infants and toddlers in foster care, trauma isn’t always loud—it often shows up in silent struggles with sleep, eating, transitions, or resisting comfort. This training will help professionals decode trauma responses in everyday behaviors and understand how early relational trauma impacts emotional and physiological regulation. Instead of labeling behaviors as “difficult” or “defiant,” we’ll reframe them as adaptive survival strategies that help children cope with unpredictable environments. Participants will gain practical strategies to help foster, relative, and biological caregivers respond with sensitivity and create stability for young children in care.

Q2 Webinars

Caring for the Caregivers: Building Patience, Resilience and Support

June 16, 2025

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Summary: Caring for a very young child who has experienced trauma is emotionally complex work. Even the most experienced foster, relative, and fictive kin caregivers—those with all the training in the world—can find themselves feeling helpless, frustrated, or even questioning if they are doing the “right thing” when a child in their home is struggling. Many young children in care send confusing relational signals, wanting comfort but also pushing caregivers away, leaving caregivers feeling rejected, ineffective, or even emotionally exhausted. When caregivers feel stuck in helplessness, it can lead to burnout, emotional detachment, or feelings they never imagined having toward a child in their care.

This session will explore why caregiving for children with early adversity requires patience, persistence, and support—not just for the child, but for the caregiver too. We will discuss how caregiver stress and self-doubt impact their ability to remain emotionally available, how relational trauma can unintentionally impact both children and caregivers, and why a strong network of support is essential to help caregivers remain steady, compassionate, and connected through difficult moments.

Pricing

Webinars are FREE for First3Years members.

Non-members may register for $15.

Students may register for $5.

Contact into@first3yearstx.org for a discount code

Links to Join the Webinar

Links will be on your receipt of registration, as well as e-mailed to you the day before.

**If you do not see the receipt in your inbox, please check your SPAM/Junk folder.**

Each webinar is broadcast live in Central Standard Time

1 Hour of Continuing Education (SW, LPC, CPE) will be provided for each webinar.