Neuropsychological assessment in neurodevelopmental disorders in children

Neuropsychological assessment is a method used for detecting, quantifying and interpreting cognitive, behavioral and socio-emotional alterations caused by abnormalities in brain structure or function. Neurosychological assessment of children with neurodevelopmental disorders requires multiple sources of information, such as interviews, questionnaires, tests, and observation of patient behavior in order to obtain a profile of their individualized cognitive development, essential when making "tailor-made" therapeutic decisions for each child. This article points out the objectives of the evaluation, the organization and procedure of the assessment, and the factors that should be considered when interpreting and giving feedback of the results. The profiles commonly observed in three highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders, will be presented as examples: attention deficit disorder, learning disorder and autism spectrum disorder.