The next several pages are intended as a "Commentary" on the six target articles bundled together as a Special Issue of the "Journal of Cognition and Development"--literature reviews and research reports all intended to "build bridges" between the study of cognitive development in typical and atypical populations.

This randomized clinical trial of methylphenidate in children with intellectual disability (ID) by Simonoff et al. (2013) advances the field in several ways useful to clinicians. The large ("N" = 122) widely representative sample more definitively confirms findings previously reported from smaller studies and studies with a differently…

The commentary by Arnold (2013) raises a number of interesting issues and speculations about the action of methylphenidate in children with intellectual disability (ID) and associated neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders. In our article (Simonoff et al., 2013), we were careful to stick closely to the statistical analysis…

The general nature of neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood, and the areas in which gains in understanding such disorders have been made are discussed in the first portion of this paper. Thereafter, discussion focuses on the contemporary approach to neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood as exemplified by three serious disturbances: attention…

Argues that motor and cognitive development may be fundamentally interrelated. Summarizes evidence of close co-activation of the neocerebellum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in functional neuroimaging, similarities in the cognitive sequelae of damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the neocerebellum, motor deficits in…