ABSTRACT
The study of cognition as applied to human behavior has been characterized as an attempt to understand the nature of human intelligence and how people think (Anderson, 1976). Thus, to understand disorders of cognition in children, as well as adults, requires a focus on various domains of intelligent behavior. These domains cover a host of areas such as language, reading, arithmetic, motor skills, attention, and social interactions, to mention a few. To limit our review, we will focus on children with specific cognitive difficulties. Specific cognitive disabilities can be contrasted with general cognitive disabilities. Children with general cognitive disabilities experience inefficiencies and deficits across a wide range of skills. Children with Down’s syndrome, for example, frequently have problems mastering multiple academic skills, whereas children with specific learning disabilities have isolated deficits in cognition related to problems in areas such as reading or math. In practice, the distinction between specific and general learning difficulties is based on a standardized intelligence test (Cheung et al., 2012; Haworth et al., 2009; Hulme & Snowling, 2009; McGrath et al., 2011). Individuals with intelligence quotient (IQ) scores below a certain threshold, such as 75, may be viewed as having general to moderate disabilities, whereas those within the average range of intelligence (e.g., 85-120) may suffer more specialized deficits in specified areas of learning (e.g., math or reading). There are several excellent texts (e.g., Alloway & Gathercole, 2007; Hulme & Snowling, 2009; Yeates, Ris, Taylor, & Pennington, 2010) that provide an indepth review of developmental disorders of cognition related to language and learning. The reader is referred to those sources for a more comprehensive review of the literature than this chapter can provide.
