The situation of early childhood intervention in Austria is described from its beginningin the 1970s up to the present situation and future challenges. Children with disabilityor at risk of being disabled qualify for early childhood intervention as well as partly andto some extent also children in the context of socially disadvantaged families. Based onnine provincial laws, the structure of early childhood intervention in Austria isheterogeneous. A consensus regarding key terms, the age of the child (0 3 or 6), andhome-based services exists. Future challenges focus on early identification ofvulnerable target groups by increased communication with community based networks(social worker, mental health specialists) as the number of children with unspecificdevelopmental delays or vulnerability will increase. The training programmes for earlyintervention professionals, as proposed for example in the project PRECIOUS(www.precious.at), must include the need for professionals to work with vulnerablefamilies in general to a greater extent

Early Childhood Intervention; systems development, Austria