Mental health disorders provoke important changes on children behavior. The incidence of these pathologies has increased worldwide and they are diagnosed earlier, what start a discussion about their influence on psychosocial development of carrier children. We wanted to describe how depression affects child cognitive development, with changes in cognitive psycho-sphere. Two databases (SciELO and BVS) were surveyed between 2006 and 2011, using the keywords " depression", " children" and " development" . After analysis, eight articles were selected and used to construct this work. Results disclose that childhood depression is a negative influence to children cognitive development. In case of illness, child recognizes itself as unable to achieve demands which are betting on it, with feelings of shame, doubt, lack of self-confidence and learning problems, being unable to "make their best". Education professional must be able to recognize these changes manifest in the school environment. Studies showed that a healthy external environment allows for a proper maturation of the cognitive system protects children and childhood depression. While most studies suggest a causal relationship between depression and cognitive impairment, other studies show the inverse relationship in the low cognition generates symptoms of depression. However, it should also be noted that difficulty of learning and childhood depression can coexist without there necessarily a causal relationship between them. It is necessary to diagnose earlier these disorders, making possible to repair injuries in children development.