Crucial differences between developmental cognitive neuroscience and adult neuropsychology

Abstract

It is argued that the static adult neuropsychological model is inappropriate for explaining the development of many atypical children whose brains cannot be considered in terms of a normal brain with parts intact and parts impaired. Rather, their brains develop differently from normal children from the very outset. I illustrate this with two examples from Williams syndrome, showing how equivalent behavioral outcomes stem from different underlying processes.