The term aphasia when used with reference to a paediatric population denotes three different pathological conditions: congenital aphasia, developmental aphasia and acquired aphasia. Children with developmental or acquired language disorders display a variety of linguistic deficits, which may range from subtle but clinically relevant to quite severe. Recent advances in static and functional brain imaging, modern electrophysiology and molecular genetics suggest an overlap between neurodevelopmental language disorders and congenital aphasia. Traditional, quite optimistic views on the almost unlimited potential for neuroplasticity accommodation of language functions in case of focal and circumscribed paediatric brain damage, leading to well-flourished language skills given an early lesion or to complete recovery from aphasia given injury acquired later in life, have been seriously tempered by contemporary knowledge. Apart from the nature of the lesion, it is clear that other lesion-related and language-related variables act on the recovery process.