Diagnostic labels describing specific diagnoses can be valuable in analyzing a child's problems and may be critical in securing medical and educational services, ‘but sometimes we forget that there is actually but one child with one dysfunctional brain’ (Rapin I, unpublished). Co-occurring developmental difficulties require an integrated approach in both terminology and care. The term ‘neurodevelopmental disorder’, as well as encompassing major impairments such as the cerebral palsies, embraces overlapping problems with speech and language, motor-perceptive function, behaviour, and learning.