Four years ago, Infants & Young Children (IYC) collaborated with the International Society for Early Intervention (ISEI) on a special issue highlighting early childhood intervention across the world. The focus of the issue was on the application of the Developmental Systems Approach to Early Intervention (Guralnick, 2001). That issue and a following issue had contributions from a number of authors describing the status of early intervention in their country.

I am pleased to present this second collaborative issue with the ISEI on the topic of early childhood inclusion. This issue supports the publication of the policy statement on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities into Early Childhood Program from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services which was published in IYC 29(1). Our intent was to have an opportunity to share the international examples of early childhood inclusion.

This current issue was edited by my colleagues from the board of ISEI: Michael Guralnick from the United States, Ibrahim Halil Diken from Turkey, and Manfred Pretis from Austria. They successfully solicited and edited the articles that appear in this issue. All nine articles focus on inclusive early childhood services in individual countries that differ across number of dimensions. I am impressed with the variety of countries that they identified for inclusion in this issue, and their attention to detail during the editorial process.

In addition, I want to thank Natalie Danner and Jenna Lequia from the University of Connecticut, who further assisted me in the editorial process of this special issue. They are both postdoctoral fellows studying with me, and both have a strong professional interest in inclusion.

Most importantly, I thank the authors who wrote about early childhood inclusion from the perspective of their country: Michael J. Guralnick (United States); Coral R. Kemp (Australia); Manfred Pretis (Austria); Marta Ljubesic and Sanja Simlesa (Croatia); Malka Margalit, Dorit Aram, and Michal Al-Yagon (Israel); Susan H. Foster-Cohen and Anne K. van Bysterveldt (New Zealand); Climent Gine, Anna Balcells-Balcells, Margarita Canadas, and Gema Paniagua (Spain); Ibrahim Halil Diken, Salih Rakap, Ozlem Diken, Gozde Tomris, and Secil Celik (Turkey); and Carolyn Blackburn (United Kingdom). I am confident that their contribution will further the inclusion agenda for all young children across the world.

-Mary Beth Bruder, PhD

Editor

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