Inclusion is often associated with students with “special educational needs” (SEN), including ones who have Learning Disabilities (Hammill, 1990). These students are considered as the most vulnerable group of learners. Recently, many concerns have been raised about the usefulness of the concept of “special educational needs”: the reason why is the possible discriminatory and “labelling” use of the concept, referred to a model which emphasizes individual differences as “deficits”, thus devaluing children on the basis of their presumed “defects” (Barton, 2003; Corbett, 1996). Actually, inclusion is an unending process of increasing learning and participation for all children, reducing all exclusionary pressures and it’s about supporting educational settings to become more responsive to the diversity of children's backgrounds, interests, experience, knowledge and skills (Booth & Ainscow, 2002). In this perspective, the differences between students are resources to support learning, rather than problems to be overcome. The focus on children and their needs is fundamental for creating high-quality education systems, that provide equality of opportunity and high achievement for all. After more than three decades of school and health policies oriented to the full realization of inclusion, Italian school has to deal with two important challenges: the first concerns the knowledge and the assessment of students with disabilities/SEN and the second refers to school inclusive strategies. Referring to the first point, an important step towards inclusion was the introduction of World Health Organization’s ICF, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, occurred in 2002. The ICF anthropological model, as a comprehensive bio-psycho-social conceptualization of health and functioning, considers and examines relationships among bodily, structural and functional dimensions, personal activity areas, environmental and personal (psychological, motivational, emotional, etc.) factors. Regarding the second point, there is currently general agreement in identifying two important areas to focus on in order to design effective inclusive strategies and enable schools to provide additional support when it’s required: early identification and early intervention on learning difficulties, trying to identify valid tools that can measure and predict which students are likely to have troubles with their learning process, with particular attention to children attending kindergarten and first grade. In the light of these premises, this research falls within the theoretical framework of disability studies and the social model of disability (Medeghini et al. 2013) in the attempt to define the best conditions for promoting students’ personal development and consequently to remove all the possible barriers to learning and participation. In particular, we discuss the need to improve the quality of teaching and learning by firstly investigating the cognitive domain, analysing the correlation between learning prerequisites and learning outcomes in a group of third-grade children, evaluated by administering standardized assessment tools. Only after this procedure, we can be able to identify students at risk of learning difficulties and eventually start an inclusive programme of “cognitive training” in order to upgrade students’ skills. Furthermore, it’s well-known that children with SEN are also at a greatly increased risk of experiencing poor psychosocial outcomes (Humphrey et al., 2013). In fact, extended experiences of failure through the course of schooling can cause low self-esteem, emotional distress, demotivation in learning, inhibition, sometimes aggression and disturbing behaviours in classroom and in some cases anxiety and depression (Tressoldi e Vio, 1996; Johnson, 2001). For this reason, it’s important to consider socio-emotional aspects of learning, especially enhancing the relationship between children with learning difficulties, teachers and peers. 

Angelelli, P., Notarnicola, A., Costabile, D., Marinelli, V., Judica, A., Zoccolotti, P., Luzzatti, C. (2008). DDO. Diagnosi dei disturbi ortografici in età evolutiva. Trento: Erickson. Barton, L. (2003). Inclusive Education and Teacher Education: a Basis for Hope or a Discourse of Delusion. London: Institute of Education. Booth, T. & Ainscow, M. (2002). Index For Inclusion. Bristol, UK: Centre For Studies On Inclusive Education. Corbett, J. (1996). Bad Mouthing: The Language of Special Needs. London: Falmer Press. Cornoldi, C. e Colpo, G. (1998). Prove di Lettura MT per la Scuola Elementare-2. Firenze: Giunti. Cornoldi, C., Miato, L., Molin, A., Poli, S. (2009), PRCR-2/2009. Prove di prerequisito per la diagnosi delle difficoltà di lettura e scrittura. Firenze: Giunti. Gates, B. (ed., 2007). Learning Disabilities: Toward Inclusion. Fifth edition. San Diego: Elsevier. Gori, S. e Facoetti, A. (2014). Perceptual learning as a possible new approach for remediation and prevention of developmental dyslexia. Vision Research, 99, 78-87. Grasselli, B., Nera, M.M., Consoni, D., Lucarelli, C. (2015). Potenziamento “abilitante” nei disturbi specifici di apprendimento. Monitoraggio e arricchimento del linguaggio e del desiderio della lettura. Roma: Armando. Hammill, D.D. (1990). On defining learning disabilities: an emerging consensus. In Journal of Learning Disabilities, 23, 74-84. Humphrey, N., Lendrum, A., Alexandr,a B., Wigelsworth, M., Squires, G. (2013). Achievement for All: Improving psychosocial outcomes for students with special educational needs and disabilities. In Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34, 1210-1225. Johnson, B. (2001). Behaviour Problems In Children and Adolescents with Learning Disabilities. The Internet Journal of Mental Health, 1 (2), 45-54. Medeghini, R., D’Alessio, S., Marra, A., Vadalà, G., Valtellina, E. (2013). Disability Studies. Trento: Erickson. Prunty, A., Dupont, M., Mcdaid, R. (2012), Voices of students with special educational needs (SEN). Views on schooling. In Support for Learning, 27 (1), 29-36. Rossini, V. (2012). I bisogni educativi speciali secondo il modello ICF-CY. In G. Elia, Questioni di pedagogia speciale. Itinerari di ricerca, contesti di inclusione, problematiche educative (pp. 43-74). Bari: Progedit. Rossini, V. (2016). Il disagio “invisibile” dei bambini a scuola. In M. Tomarchio, S. Ulivieri (a cura di). Pedagogia militante. Diritti, culture, territori (pp. 234-248). Pisa: ETS. Skidmore, D. (2004) Inclusion: the dynamic of school development. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Tressoldi, P.E. e Vio, C. (1996). Diagnosi dei disturbi dell’apprendimento scolastico. Trento: Erickson. Walmsley, J. and Johnson, K. (2003). Inclusive research with people with learning disabilities. Past, Present and Futures. London and New York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.