Book Review
Developmental Neuropsychology
N Engl J Med 1995; 333:1089October 19, 1995
- Article
Developmental Neuropsychology
By Otfried Spreen, Anthony H. Risser, and Dorothy Edgell. 674 pp. New York, Oxford University Press, 1995. $65. ISBN: 0-19-506736-3The field of developmental neuropsychology has grown substantially since the original 1984 version of this book. The authors have done an excellent job of revising and updating an enormous amount of clinical material that should be of great interest to many specialists who deal with childhood development.
Developmental Neuropsychology has four major sections and consists of 30 chapters. Part I is a succinct review of neural development and the development of various functional systems of the nervous system. Part II focuses on issues related to assessment of the newborn and infant and also includes a very interesting chapter on the concepts of critical periods, plasticity, and recovery of function. This second section concludes with a chapter that discusses research methods and contains very helpful tables concerning mental retardation. Part III embraces a wide variety of clinical topics and describes neuropsychological aspects of specific syndromes or disorders. Psychologists, neurologists, and pediatricians will find this section helpful because it presents a vast array of topics succinctly and contains excellent references. Part IV deals with functional disabilities related primarily to soft neurologic findings, attention-deficit disorders, and a variety of sensory, language, and other developmental and learning disorders commonly seen in neuropsychology.
I found this book challenging to read but worth the effort. It is encyclopedic but not mind-numbing in detail, and the efforts of the authors to integrate basic and clinical research have succeeded. Of particular interest is the attention to the historical development of ideas that form the foundation of contemporary neuropsychology. The strengths of this book are also its weaknesses. It attempts to cover too much, and at times one feels that currently popular subjects have received very little attention (e.g., Tourette's syndrome). This book deals well with the past and perhaps with the field of developmental psychology of the early 1990s, but it does not provide a true flavor of the future. Overall, I believe that the authors' goal of writing a book “so that it poses no difficulties in understanding for the clinical psychologist without background in neurology or the pediatrician without background in psychology” has been satisfied.
Stephen Ashwal, M.D.
Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA 92354
