It is probably fair to state that the early intervention community has historically emphasized supports and services to promote children's cognitive, language, and motor development. To be sure, social and emotional aspects of young children's lives were considered in many programs and curricula, but still the focus was not there. In part, this could be attributed to the hope that advances in more traditional developmental domains would have a beneficial effect on social-emotional development. The argument could be captured in often heard statements such as: "If I can just improve his language he could express himself better and not need to act out as much." There is, of course, some logic to that argument and, in some instances, this is exactly the result. But, all too often, the correspondence between gains in language, cognitive, or motor development does not substantially diminish the problems children are experiencing in the social and emotional domains. Indeed, problems in social and emotional development themselves can constrain cognitive and language development, in particular. The lack of emphasis of social-emotional development in early intervention was also due to the fact that the mental health service community was poorly integrated with early intervention systems, and often held theoretical and philosophical perspectives that were outside the comfort zones of many early intervention professionals. The absence of reliable and valid screening tools and a more general difficulty in making proper assessments of young children's mental health status were also factors that limited the emphasis by early intervention professionals.
Fortunately, in the last few years, traditional early intervention programs have begun to address more systematically and effectively the mental health issues of young children. Our field has responded with new assessment tools, curricula, and model programs. Included in this issue of IYC are a number of articles relevant to this issue. New and useful tools are becoming available as revealed in articles on mental health screening and detecting developmental and (importantly) behavioral problems in the context of primary care practice. Curricula/intervention issues are also considered in this issue of IYC in the description of one of the very few validated prevention-oriented programs that exists focusing on emotional regulation. Finally, the experiences of a statewide community program that integrates mental health and early intervention services is discussed, providing many valuable lessons.
This issue of IYC also contains related articles describing how children's social and emotional lives can be enhanced through maximizing their participation in inclusive and natural environments and strengthening the bond between mothers and their high-risk infants. Taken together, the theoretical, empirical, and practice domains relevant to children's mental health concerns seem to be now on a path to a meaningful and thoughtful integration with the early intervention system.