ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the application of cognitive neuropsychology to children. This is an approach which is increasingly popular in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK) and Italy, but which differs from the dominant approach to child neuropsychology in North America. Whereas adult cognitive neuropsychology builds models on the basis of the disorders seen following functional lesions to a pre-existing system, developmental cognitive neuropsychology builds models on the basis of disorders reflecting functional lesions within developing systems. Developmental cognitive neuropsychology has its most recent origins in adult neuropsychology, and an understanding of its history, assumptions and objectives is an important background to any discussion of the developmental field. Given the importance of individual differences within developmental cognitive neuropsychology, case studies are the most common form of analysis employed. In childhood, a cognitive neuropsychological analysis may be applied to both developmental or acquired disorders. Developmental disorders are usually considered to be those in which no explicit pathology is known.
