Introduction to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders starts with examining the newborn and child. It also includes understanding and identifying the epigenetic effects of prenatal environmental factors as well as birthing issues that can impact brain development from the very beginning of life but have lifelong impact.

In each module we will also follow the Brain Developmental Blueprint, which builds the neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of the brain and highlight specific areas of the brain each time. The goal is that by the end the learner will have an expert knowledge of functional brain anatomy and physiology from a developmental perspective. In this first module we will start with the basic neuron theory and gross anatomy of the brain. We will review the different stages of brain development from an evolutionary perspective. We will go over in great details the developmental stages of the brain including the formation and development of specific networks, localization of the brainstem and brain and the lateralization of the hemispheres. We will discuss the vertical integration of the brain that starts from the bottom up and then leads to top down regulation. We will discuss horizontal integration and synchronization of the hemispheres. We will also discuss the epidemiology of neurobehavioral disorders and their prevalence in children, adolescents and adult populations. We will go through the history of these disorders, the research behind what we are going to cover and all of the different aspects. We will discuss the mainstream perspective and traditional approaches to diagnosis and treatment. We will also give the learner more advanced, cutting edge research and tools to develop a functional treatment plan. Then we will start with teaching on the Physical Examination for infants and children that covers the womb and then 0 to 3 years old examination. This will include primitive reflexes, neurological and cognitive evaluations and much more. The approach to treatment in early childhood or in children with severe developmental delays is a very different approach than with a child who is older and higher functioning. Training parents how to develop a home program along with clinic-based treatment is critical to success. That training includes primitive reflex remediating activities and hemisphere specific stimulation early on is the first stage of treatment and will be explained during Module 1 in details.