Recognition of poverty and neglect is very important in formulating a practical diagnosis of children's and adolescent's learning disorders. Early brain development forms the basis of learning, behavior and health over the entire life span. Through accumulated stressors and lack of supports, early poverty undermines competent parenting which then impairs learning and is the most common cause of mild mental retardation (MMR). Parenting interventions left until school entry do not prevent the insidious decline in IQ over the developmental period. Most types of learning disorders (e.g., ADHD, LD, FAS/FAE) are either aggravated or actually caused in the presence of chronic early poverty. Lack of functional accessibility to family, extra-familial and community resources for the poor impairs their adjustment to their children's learning disorders. Stresses due to poverty and cultural marginalization also exacerbate FAS/FAE. Poverty and despair eclipse diagnostic debates in producing hyperactivity, memory impairment, and social maladjustment. The need for early identification of at-risk infants and the provision of nurturing stimulation, cognitive training and parental support cannot be over-emphasized.