Investigation of Writing and Reading

Abstract

The investigation of writing and reading is a phase of the study of the higher cortical processes that is of considerable importance to the topical diagnosis of brain lesions. As special forms of speech activity, writing, and reading differ essentially from spoken speech both in their genesis and psychophysiological structure and in their functional properties. Whereas spoken speech is formed in the early stages of the child’s development in the course of direct association with other people, written speech does not appear until much later and is the result of special training. In contrast to spoken speech, which usually proceeds automatically and without the conscious analysis of its phonetic composition, from the very beginning written speech is a voluntary, organized activity with the conscious analysis of its constituent sounds.