Advances in the neurocognitive sciences, aided by

increased imaging power, have extensively confirmed

that during early development specific areas of a

child's brain are designed to process specific

functions - neurologic, cognitive, linguistic, motoric, and

visuospatial, among others - and that this processing

involves globally complex interconnections with other

areas distributed throughout the brain: a lesion in a given

area interferes with the functioning and coherence of the

system as a whole.

This volume discusses the consequences of early brain

injury to many parts of the brain, including the basal

ganglia, with their related disorders of aphasia, OCD, and

AD/HD, as well as white matter and its associated neuro-psychological

impairment of intelligence, language, and

visuoperception. The corpus callosum and cerebellum are

studied as they relate to learning motor sequences and

language as well as communication disorders and social

behavior. This book also looks at mirror neurons as they

affect the understanding of others' intentions and the

development of empathy and gestural and other forms of

language.

The implications of these findings are examined since they

have a critical effect on the rehabilitative and educational

efforts that are being designed to mitigate the effects of

early brain lesions on the growing child.