What kinds of early intervention practices are other countries developing and implementing — and what can we learn from them? You’ll find the answers in this fascinating book, which spotlights effective, innovative practices at work in China, Sweden, Ethiopia, Portugal, India, Israel, Australia, Germany, and more. Along with a detailed overview of and rationale for early intervention, you’ll get chapters built around early intervention practices in four areas:

• service delivery models, including topics like community-based inclusion, mediational approaches to early intervention, and service provision in rural areas
  
  
• family support, including topics like working with families to implement home interventions, addressing challenges like poverty and malnutrition, and forming partnerships with families of children with disabilities
  
  
• professional development, including topics like university-based continuing education programs, low-cost education for paraprofessionals, and development of programs for in-service professionals
  
  
• organizational support, including topics like national legislation, community and agency initiatives, and team development

Each chapter highlights early intervention in one country and includes a vignette that provides cultural context; background information on the country’s social, political, and economic structure; challenges and successes the country has experienced in implementing specific early intervention practices; and recommendations on how other countries can apply the lessons learned. With this broad international look at early intervention, you’ll sharpen your knowledge of the issues other cultures face and get the inspiration and creative strategies you need to improve your own practice.

(A volume in the International Issues in Early Intervention series.)

Series Preface
About the Editors
Contributors
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Early Intervention: An Overview
   James A. Blackman

I. Service Delivery Models

2. Cultural Issues and Service Provision in Rural Areas: People's Republic of China
   Summer Tsai-Hsing Hsia, Helen McCabe, and Bao-Jen Li
   
   
3. Community-Based Inclusion: South Korea
   SoHyun Lee
   
   
4. A Mediational Approach to Early Intervention: Israel
   Pnina S. Klein
   
   
5. Early Intervention Practices: Ethiopia
   Tirussew Teferra

II. Working with Families

6. Working with Families to Implement Home Interventions: India
   Sudha Kaul, Swapna Mukherjee, Asis Kumar Ghosh, Madhabi Chattopadhyay, and Utsab Sil
   
   
7. The Right to a Good and Supportive Start in Life: Brazil
   H. Garren Lumpkin and Maria Salete Fábio Aranha
   
   
8. A Family Partnership Model of Early Intervention: Egypt
   Naguib Khouzam, Eglal Chenouda, and Georgette Naguib

III. Training and Personnel Preparation

9. Creating a Team Around the Child Through Professionals' Continuing Education: Sweden
   Eva Björck-Åkesson and Mats Granlund
   
   
10. Paraprofessionals in Low-Cost Early Intervention Programs: Jamaica
    Marigold J. Thorburn
    
    
11. A Comprehensive Early Intervention Training Approach: Portugal
    José Boavida and Leonor Carvalho

IV. Organizational Support for Early Intervention

12. National Legislation for Early Intervention: United States of America
    Marci J. Hanson
    
    
13. Formal and Informal Networks: Australia
    Christine F. Johnson
    
    
14. Supporting the Early Intervention Team: Germany
    Franz Peterander
    
    
15. Early Intervention Themes and Variations from Around the World: Summary
    Samuel L. Odom and Sudha Kaul

Index