**3. Automaticity as a cognitive process**

In the second chapter, this child's results are then 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 presented in this book are intended to be read together. The aim is to provide the reader with access to a resource, which is both theoretical and practical, based on the theory, assessment procedures, methods and materials used in implementing a fluency-based

Based on the theories of Sechenov [4] and Pavlov [5], Luria [1] conceptualises higher mental processes as complex reflex activities, responsible for reflecting and working with the outside world. Following Vygotsky [6, 7], Luria suggests that these reflex processes are social in ori-

In this dynamic view of neurological development and functioning, the natural reflexes of the child become radically organised as a result of the handling of objects. New motor patterns, for example, are formed so that the child's movements are able to match the properties of the objects with which he or she interacts. Similar principles apply in the development of human perception, which would be formed under the direct influence of the objective world

As the brain and the nervous system form the basis for human adaptation to the social and physical demands of the environment, the social and interactive conditions in human development would lead to the formation of highly complex systems of reflex connections. To be capable of reflecting, the external world requires the combined working of many receptors in the formation of new functional systems [10]. In this ongoing process of organisation and reorganisation, the development of higher mental functions would be based on the creation of new, intermediate structures of mental processes and the development of new interfunctional relationships directed towards the performance of new tasks, as well as the performance of

Luria suggests [1, 2] that the performance of increasingly complex tasks would require the development of increasingly complex mediate structures in the brain. A mediate structure would thus be a characteristic feature of all mental processes. Speech would also play a decisive role in the mediation of mental processes [11]. The higher mental functions would be based on mediate structures and would be neurolinguistic in character [3], as they would be

both formed and mediated, with the intimate participation of speech.

**2. The development of functional systems in the brain**

gin, mediate in structure and voluntary in mode of function [8].

of things, the majority of which have a social origin [9].

previous tasks by new methods.

programme.

118 Learning Disabilities - An International Perspective

Luria [1] suggests that if the higher mental functions are complex, organised functional systems which are social in origin, any attempt to localise them in circumscribed areas of the brain would not be justifiable. Rather, the system of reflexes and connections underpinning the higher mental functions would be likely to have a wide, dynamic representation throughout the cerebral cortex. Developmentally, the involvement of speech connections as necessary components of the higher mental processes would make the cerebral organisation of higher mental functioning increasingly complex.

For this reason, Luria follows Pavlov [5] in suggesting that the higher mental functions would be accommodated in the brain in functional combination centres. These functional systems would not be ready-made at birth, but would be formed in the process of social contact as well as the activities undertaken by the child in his interactions with the external world. Increasingly complex connections and interactions between these functional systems would become necessary for the development of speech and language and the language processes involved in reading and writing.

Based on the theories of Leontiev [62–64] and Vygotsky [6, 7, 65], Luria [66] suggests that the development of higher mental functions takes place in stages. In the early stages, the higher mental functions would depend on the use of external evocative signs, within a pattern of a series of unfolding operations [67]. Only when the capacity to undertake operations at a basic level is complete would these operations gradually consolidate, enabling the whole process to be converted into a concise action, based initially on external and then on internal speech. The consolidation process would involve increasing automaticity, in which a complex cycle of unconnected acts would become a highly automatised skill.
