The aim of this section is to describe the normal development of the central nervous system in the infant and child, illustrated with recent techniques in neuroscience, particularly neuroimaging, which add to our understanding of critical periods of brain development, both in typical children and in children from high-risk environments. This will enable you to interpret findings in ‘normally’ developing survivors of prematurity.

You will be able to formulate a comprehensive account of the development of the central nervous system sub serving function and conclude with the neural basis of intelligence.

This section will enable you to appreciate how our knowledge of the mechanisms of learning and memory are derived from a range of experimental paradigms, particularly with animal models, and how this links to mechanisms of neurological disorder.

By the end of this section, you should have, and be able to apply in your own clinical practice, an appreciation of the theories and observations behind the concepts of brain plasticity, critical periods, and environmental influences on brain development and on brain recovery after insult.

This section will enable you to understand the principles of developmental screening, surveillance and assessment.

By the end of this section you will recognise the normal variation in the process and acquisition of speech and language, appreciate the underlying theories of language acquisition and the supporting evidence from brain imaging and evoked potential technologies.

By the end of this section you will understand the clinical situations in which speech and language development is impaired. You will have a diagnostic framework to employ in the clinic and will understand the underlying causes and be able to plan intervention and discuss prognosis.

This section will enable you to recognise Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD) along with its predisposing risk factors and to summarise the clinical management of the condition.

In this section you will look at children with intellectual disabilities. Part 1 covers the diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability. Part 2 looks at the assessment process for establishing whether there are deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning.

In this section you will look at specific learning difficulties in comparison with intellectual disability which you have looked at in the previous section.

In this section you will be taken through the concepts of memory, executive function, attention and visual perceptual and visual motor function, and general intelligence, to help you understand these concepts and how difficulties with their functions may present in your clinical practice. 

This section will enable you to understand the role of the neuropsychologist in a paediatric neurology setting and to appreciate the unique contribution a neuropsychological assessment makes to the management of children with neurological conditions.

In this section you will look at how psychiatric conditions of childhood are currently classified, and learn how to formulate a case to make the relevant diagnosis/diagnoses.

In this section you will learn about the evolution of the concept of autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) over time, and how our understanding of the aetiologies and management of the ASDs has also evolved over time. You will also look at the relationship between autism and epilepsy, and at some of the disorders which can be mistaken for ASDs such as Landau Kleffner Syndrome.

In this section you will follow 4 real case scenarios illustrating the presentation of psychosis and of acute confusion in neurological conditions. The first 2 scenarios we suggest are essential activities to complete the learning content of this section, the final 2 scenarios we suggest you study for further interest if you would like to.

In this section we take you through the case of a child with a dual diagnosis of epilepsy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In this section we will to take you through two cases of children in epilepsy clinic with co-morbid symptoms of depression, using the cases to illustrate how to diagnose and manage such children.

In this section, we will take you through the concepts of illness behaviour and somatoform disorders. At the end of this section you will be able to recognize the importance of functional disorders in paediatric neurology practice, and the common ways in which they present. You will also begin to develop personal strategies to manage them.

For this final section we would like you to watch the excellent teaching video ‘Neurodevelopmental Movement Disorders: Tics, Stereotypies and other movements’ given by Dr Osman Malik, consultant child psychiatrist at the Evelina Children’s Hospital London.