Neurodevelopmental and cognitive disabilities: Historical overview

This chapter explores the history of the developmental sciences and their impact on the study of neurodevelopmental and cognitive disabilities from the start of the 20th century to the present day. It covers the origins of intelligence testing and developmental schedules and the importance of early laboratory testing on identifying the causes of developmental differences. It also explores the importance of major legal and institutional changes after the Second World War in reframing approaches to developmental conditions. Postwar attempts to limit institutional care and to improve educational services had a significant influence on the growth of the cognitive science movement and genetic studies in the 1960s. The chapter argues that this history is critical to understanding contemporary approaches to neurodevelopmental science. Historical investigation demonstrates the complex ways that technological, social, and political changes can directly impact medical and scientific practice. It can therefore play an important role in informing those practices in the present.