FAQ

Innovations is an educational consulting company that provides a variety of services to early childhood programs, meaningful professional development experiences for teachers of children   from birth to eight years of age, and supportive services and professional development to their administrators and managers.

Recent projects completed by Jennifer Fiechtner for Innovations include presenting sessions at professional development events, crafting presentation materials including media presentations and handouts for participants, designing and writing components for a comprehensive community of practice train the trainer series on early childhood emotional and social development, editing Nature-Based Play, and writing articles for digital and print publications.

Recent projects for Kay Albrecht for Innovations include completing a revision of The Right Fit: Recruiting, Selecting, and Orienting Staff, researching and conceptualizing the scope and sequence of a modular training program on early childhood emotional and social development, writing articles for digital and print publications, presenting at local, regional, and national conferences on topics related to early childhood program administration, and serving on the advisory board of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

Complete the  Contact Us form. We will contact you within 24-36 hours.

Both Jennifer and Kay can be easily contacted by email.

Jennifer’s email address is jennifer@innovationsinece.com. 

Kay’s email address is kay@innovationsinece.com.

SET for Life is an approach that shares strategies to support emotional and social development to be implemented by the adults who work with children from birth through age eight. This approach is described in detail in Social Emotional Tools for Life—An Early Childhood Teacher’s Guide to Strong Emotional Foundations and Successful Social Relationships. A companion booklet for parents, Five Parenting Strategies to Support Emotional Development is also available. Additional resources for parents are in development.

SET for Life—An Early Childhood Teacher’s Guide to Strong Emotional Foundations and Successful Social Relationships is being used in a variety of situations. It has found a home as a textbook for understanding and supporting emotional and social development; used to create a community of practice cohort to learn more about strategies to support emotional and social development; and adopted for use as a professional development resource for family child care providers in a community of practice model.

Five Parenting Strategies to Support Emotional Development is being used to problem-solve with families and child care providers in a systems change program, and as a resource for families when challenging behaviors require a coordinated response both at home and in early childhood settings. A resource and referral agency is using both books to address early childhood standards requirements.

The Innovations materials were designed and written to provide a platform for implementing developmentally appropriate curricula for infants, toddlers and prekindergarten children while supporting teachers in a growing understanding of early childhood education theory and best practices.

Innovations curricula are used in early childhood programs under a wide variety of sponsorships throughout the US. In addition, federally funded programs, such as Early Head Start and Head Start use the Innovations curricula. These resources have been available for some time and have found wide approval for being comprehensive as well as easy to access and use. Several states have included the curricula in quality enhancement efforts and aligned the materials with state content standards.

Programs in several states (Ohio, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, and others) are using the curricula as an introduction to formalizing the curriculum planning process with caregivers and teachers in child care and pre-kindergarten settings.