PHYSIOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF W RITING AND SPELLING - AN OVERVIEW

Writing and spelling are conceived as concerted actions comprising cog nitive planning, motor action and an expressive content. In literate s ocieties the individual use of alphabetic systems is acquired immediat ely after speech as a ''cultural technique''. As such these systems de mand specific cognitive and motor skills which have been analysed prim arily on the basis of neurological and psychiatric syndromes. We disti nguish primary developmental disturbances and secondarily acquired dis turbances of writing and spelling, categorizing the latter into four e ssential disturbance areas: linguistic command, motor execution, autom atism control and dynamic tonus regulation. The clinical significance of writing and spelling is not confined to its possible disturbances. In pathologically induced restrictions of cognitive functions or of so cial skills the fact is rather that the written language frequently co ntributes to the development of individual coping strategies. From the psychodynamic aspect, written communication is characterized principa lly by its proximity-regulating function.