The observation of children with singular weaknesses in reading and writing with good scholastic performance in other subjects goes back to the last century. Concrete steps were, however, only taken after insistent clinical publications in the fifties. Most recently, bureaucratic decisions on school matters hinder the assistance to dyslexic children so that the danger of criminal development increases. The psychiatric view of the disease picture and the possibilities of rehabilitation are contrasted with these tendencies, congenital dyscalculia also being briefly discussed.