Abstract Objective Many pediatric chronic illnesses have shown increased survival rates, leading to greater focus on cognitive and psychosocial issues. Neuropsychological services have traditionally been provided only after significant changes in the child’s cognitive or adaptive functioning have occurred. This model of care is at odds with preventative health practice, including early identification and intervention of neuropsychological changes related to medical illness. We propose a tiered model of neuropsychological evaluation aiming to provide a preventative, risk-adapted level of assessment service to individuals with medical conditions impacting the central nervous system based on public health and clinical decision-making care models. Methods Elements of the proposed model have been used successfully in various pediatric medical populations. We summarize these studies in association with the proposed evaluative tiers in our model. Results and Conclusions This model serves to inform interventions through the various levels of assessment, driven by evidence of need at the individual level in real time.

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In the search to understand the basis of performance discrepancies, many clinicians are recognizing that, often, factors with no direct relationship to brain functioning influence performance on neuropsychological measures of cognition among children and adolescents. The emergent research on cross-cultural neuropsychology indicates that while the test performance discrepancies do indeed exist, they can be explained by a number of other factors, some of which are known and others that have yet to be operationalized or even identified. While a review of all such factors is beyond the scope of this article, an examination of those that have received the most attention is presented: factors associated with the examinee, factors associated with the neuropsychological measures, cultural competency of the examiner, and factors at the organizational/political level.

A robust literature has developed documenting neurocognitive late effects in survivors of leukemia and central nervous system (CNS) tumors, the most frequent cancer diagnoses of childhood. Patterns of late effects include deficits in attention and concentration, working memory, processing speed, and executive function, as well as other domains. As childhood cancer survivors are living longer, ameliorating deficits both in broad and specific neurocognitive domains has been increasingly recognized as an endeavor of paramount importance. Interventions to improve cognitive functioning were first applied to the field of pediatric oncology in the 1990s, based on strategies used effectively with adults who had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Compilation and modification of these techniques has led to the development of structured cognitive training programs, with the effectiveness and feasibility of such interventions currently an active area of research. Consequently, the purpose of this critical review is to: (1) review cognitive training programs intended to remediate or prevent neurocognitive deficits in pediatric cancer patients and survivors, (2) critically analyze training program strengths and weaknesses to inform practice, and (3) provide recommendations for future directions of clinical care and research.