In an effort to increase the communication between local child neurology societies and the International Child Neurology Association (ICNA), the ICNA Executive Board has approved a newly formed Council of Delegates (COD). Our long term plan is to have each national or regional child neurology society send a delegate to the Council of Delegates (COD).

Progress in paediatric neurosciences is proceeding rapidly, and we are entering an era in which technologies will allow for a greater knowledge and understanding of normal and abnormal brain development. Because of our improved diagnostic abilities, it is now possible to identify even subtle brain abnormalities early on, thus allowing for early intervention. However, in certain areas of the world, many children do not benefit from this progress because of the shortage of child neurologists and adequately equipped medical centers.

Founded on September 12, 1973

During the Xth International Congress of Neurology
Barcelona, Spain

Birth of child neurology in different parts of the world

In the late 1960s, a child neurologist from the Free Uni-versity of Brussels, Belgium, Dr. Sabine Pelc (1921–1989), (Fig. 1) perceived the need for a world-wide forum for neurologists whose focus was the care of children with neu-rologic conditions. In order to fill this need, she set about visiting various European and American countries in order to identify other child neurologists. I met her in 1969 when she visited the Neurological Institute of Columbia Presby-terian Medical Center in New York, where the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Blindness of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had supported a training program for child neurologists since 1956 under the direc-torship of Dr. Sidney Carter. She had already identified a number of fully trained child neurologists in Europe, Japan and Latin America before coming to the USA.