General aims
The course is divided into two parts. The first part will deal with learning disorders aiming to provide basic information on developmental disorders of written language (dyslexia and dysgraphia) as well as on disorders of numerical skills and calculation. The course will focus on the analysis of the learning disorders of written language. The main models of these disorders will be illustrated. Studies on English-speaking children will be presented as well as recent studies which compare languages with different degrees of orthographic complexity. Main models of disorders in number and calculation skills will also be presented. Special attention will be given to issues on the comorbidity of learning disabilities. Examples of comorbidity will be provided and models of comorbidity will be presented. In a second part, learning disorders will be explained in the context of genetic syndromes, autism spectrum disorders, as well as newly emerging specific learning disorders (developmental topographic disorientation, developmental prosopagnosia and aphantasia).

Specific aims
Knowledge and understanding
The student will acquire basic knowledge on the characteristics of learning disturbances of written language (dyslexia and dysgraphia) and calculation. In particular, the student will acquire information of the differentiation between disturbances in irregular (such as English) and regular (such Italian) orthographies.

Learning skills
In addition to basic reference texts, the student will be requested to read key scientific papers. This experience will foster his/her skills to read the scientific literature autonomously.