Academic success and occupational outcome rely on a person's ability to attend to and learn from their surroundings. The cognitive mechanisms underlying these respective skills are impaired in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disability (LD). The high co-occurrence between ADHD and the learning disability developmental dyslexia has raised the possibility of a common etiology. We propose that studying the functional anatomy of disordered executive control and reading-related skills using carefully selected paradigms, coupled with rigorous studies of intervention efficacy, provide the most promising avenue for ameliorating these two commonly encountered impediments to learning.