The medical profession only began to pay serious attention to the young child by the 18th century. Prior to this time, medical care was left to the midwife and the grandmother as the infant seemed to be incapable of benefitting from the intervention of physicians (Kessen, 1965). Since the 19th century, the care of the infant became increasingly defined in medical terms, particularly with the emergence of pediatrics during the present century. As a consequence, considerations of educational practice during infancy became restricted to issues of physical care such as breast versus bottle feeding, weaning, thumbsucking, sleep and sleeping problems and sphincter control. It is only quite recently that pediatrics has attended to the psychological life of the infant and thereby to a view of the infant as an educable being. This point becomes clear if one consults perhaps the most widely known pediatric textbook, the Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. First published in 1933, it is now in its 13th edition (1987). Only by the 10th edition (1975) was any reference made to psychological findings with a brief consideration of the relevance of attachment theory. By 1979 (11th edition), a complete section was devoted to the role of parents in enhancing development in which it was emphasised that the parent is the child's first and most important teacher (Vaughan, McKay & Behrman, 1979). Over the last decade there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the relevance of psychologists' findings on infant behaviour and development for pediatric practice. It has led to a close working relationship between pediatricians and psychologists in devising programs of special education for infants with developmental risks. The concept of risk has been considered in depth by Hellgard Rauh and here only brief attention will be given to the meaning of developmental risk. This term appeared during the 1950's and 1960's to refer to a broad spectrum of biological and environmental factors that are associated with an increased probability of abnormal development in terms of cognitive, social, affective, neurological and physical problems (Kopp & Krakow, 1983). Biological risk factors concern disorders or complications arising during pregnancy, labour, delivery and the neonatal period. Their environmental counterparts include the mental state of the parent, lack of social support and poverty. The distinction between these two sorts of risk factors is sometimes bordering on the artificial as when adverse prenatal and perinatal events are involved: such events (e.g. hypoxia) are biological in the sense that they affect the fetus or newborn through organic pathways, but they may be also considered as part of the child's environment. In this section of the special issue we will be dealing with the educational needs of infants who are typically classified as having biological risks.