**14. Summary and evaluation**

**Table 3.** Child 1's individual programme.

134 Learning Disabilities - An International Perspective

There has been increasing interest in automaticity as a necessary component in working with children with reading, writing and spelling difficulties. In this chapter, Luria's theories [1–3] of automaticity have first been outlined in relation to the broader literature. This has then been followed by a case study of a child (Child 1) presenting with difficulties in automaticity in reading, writing and spelling, and the procedures used for assessment and development of his individual programme.

In the following chapter, this child's results are presented, together with the results of 13 other children with learning difficulties with whom similar methods and materials have been applied. Six contrast case studies are also presented, where divergence in materials and methods has occurred.

At the end of the second chapter, conclusions are drawn, and the reader is referred to a resource of low cost materials for developing automaticity in reading, writing and spelling, which is available for use by others. This is currently being used by a network of parents, therapists and teachers in Southern Africa, as well as more widely internationally.

The two chapters are presented side by side in this book, so that the reader can first focus in this chapter on theory and how this translates into assessment, and then on the practical. The

<sup>16</sup>Influenced by comments concerning the value of points-based reward systems made by Alex Bannatyne to the author in 1978. The emphasis on teaching hundreds, tens and units through repetitive use of an ongoing reward system is the author's own.

reason for this is that procedures for assessment form the link between the areas of difficulty found in children with reading and learning disabilities and the methods and materials which can be used on a functional level for implementing fluency-based programmes in practice. The fluency-based methods used by the author are described and then evaluated in the next chapter. Key implementation variables affecting the development of reading, writing and spelling fluency are also identified, based on evidence of gains made by particular children.

#### **Author details**

Charles Potter

Address all correspondence to: pottercs@gmail.com

Educational Psychologist in Private Practice, Johannesburg, South Africa
