As any parent or teacher will tell us, improvements in cognitive abilities occur rapidly during childhood. In my Developmental Neuropsychology Laboratory we examine how improvements in cognitive abilities are disrupted in children with disorders affecting the brain. Specifically, we determine how the development of executive abilities is compromised in children with damage to the prefrontal cortex. Executive abilities allow complex information to be learned and efficiently integrated with previously-learned knowledge. For example, learning to read is most efficient when children integrate their knowledge of letter sounds, rhymes, and spellings; by doing so, children transform “cat” into “hat,” “bee” into “tree,” and “book” into “look.” When the prefrontal cortex of the brain is damaged, the development of executive abilities is disrupted and children are prevented from achieving their fullest academic potential. In my laboratory we study executive abilities in children with prefrontal brain damage related to disorders such as sickle cell disease, phenylketonuria, and cerebral palsy. Our findings are related to results from brain scans to identify the particular biological mechanisms that underlie impairments in executive abilities. We are also developing approaches for rehabilitating impairments in executive abilities to improve the quality of life and academic achievement of children with brain disorders.