INTRODUCTION: The child is the center of many developmental research works. At the heart of the educational process lies the child. This observation from the Plowden Report (1967) remains as true in 2007 as it was in 1967. Since 1967, however, there has been an explosion of research on how children of primary age develop, think and learn. Recent neuroscience research shows that learning depends on the development of multi-sensory networks of neurons distributed across the entire brain. The young child's brain has basically the same structures as the adult brain, and these structures carry out the same functions via the same mechanisms. Cognitive developmental research can benefit enormously from new technologies in neural imaging and genetics. These techniques are uncovering links between brain development and child development that are likely to be hugely important for education. Research in typical neuro-cognitive development is most needed, as current finding focuses on developmental disorders. Metacognition, reading and number are also important areas where educational research needs to discover more about the optimal ways of enhancing normative developmental profiles. Neurocognitive ability relates to cognitive functions associated with particular areas of the brain. 1.1 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology which focuses on a child's development in terms of information processing, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development. In other words, cognitive,