Children’s language and cognitive abilities underpin every aspect of learning and education. There are many ways in which cognitive function is vital to learning: children need to pay attention, inhibit irrelevant information, hold relevant information in mind whilst completing the task-at-hand (working memory), and retrieve information from long-term memory. Language is also essential to learning: most learning is accessed through language, and oral language is the foundation for reading comprehension. Lower cognitive abilities and language difficulties are associated with a range of poor education outcomes in both the short- and long-term. This makes it particularly important to identify and support children who show deficits in cognition and language. CAER supports projects that improve our understanding of cognitive and language development, and how we can best help children to achieve their full learning potential.