There continues to be a poverty of systematic knowledge concerning the processes by which children learn to read and write. Yet there is a crucial need for such knowledge so that a body of generally accepted educat ional principles and procedures may be established to prevent and treat reading disorders which occur in approximate ly 15 percent of our child populat ion (1). Reading and writing skill development involves complex processes of learning. On a physiological level, the nervous system is the basis for such learning. Undoubtedly, learning itself is a psychological process and should not be reduced to physiology. Yet to ignore the role of brain structure and function as fundamental to learning theory is to build an abstract ion devoid of essential mainsprings. In the past few decades, investigation into central nervous system funct ioning has provided impor tant findings that should influence our thinking about how children learn. Investigations in neurology and psychology can be put to viable use in the teaching of reading and writing. This article will a t tempt to establish educational principles based on a logical relationship of process in these two related fields. While there have grown up in Western Europe and the United States several t radit ions of neuropsychological and psychological thinking about language based on the structure and functioning of the brain, the neuropsychological model of reading and writing skill acquisition we shall describe is based on the theory of the development of complex functional systems within the brain. This theory was first promulgated in the Soviet Union by L. S. Vygotsky in the 1930's (2). It was richly elaborated and brought to international at tention by Aleksandr R. Luria (3), Professor of Psychology at the University of Moscow. For almost 40 years, Luria and his associates have investigated brain-behavior relationship based upon the theoretical formulations of Vygotsky. Concentrating in the area of language development, they