Specific language impairment(SLI) and developmental dyslexia are categorized as types of specific learningdisability(Box 1), but for many years the bulk of research on these disorders has looked at perceptual impairments and problems with specific linguistic components such as phonology and grammar. Here we adopt a different perspective:the idea that children with these disorders have impairments in the basic process of learning language. On this view,the language and literacy difficulties experienced by these children are not byproducts of some other primary deficit; instead,they implicate impairment or immaturity of learning mechanisms that allow the extraction of structure from a rich and varying language environment. We review recent developmental and neurobiological studies to evaluate the contribution of different brain systems in language learning,particularly focusing on how they might be affected in children with language and reading disorders.