Weak mindedness and street smartness, are they two ends of the same spectrum??

I love the way Vygotsky distinguishes between two lines of development, natural and cultural. A lack of development in any of them, could lead to retardation or weak mindedness respectively. In other words, retardation would primarily have an organic basis to it and weak mindedness would primarily have a cultural and social basis to it. Although most of what Vygotsky wrote was in relation to memory, I am curious to know if weak mindedness and street smartness can be seen as two ends of the spectrum of cultural development and cultural reasoning?? I have a cousin brother (age 39/40) who can be seen as weakminded, he has no biological/organic problem but his thoughts, communication and behaviors are not apt and quick enough to meet situational demands.   He takes a relatively long time to process things. Some examples, when his mom was having a medical crisis, he called my dad and asked what to do as opposed to calling the ambulance first. Another example is that he is not married yet, although he wants to. And the only reason is he is not able to make his mind up on who he wants to settle down with and does not communicate effectively with the women who have been in his life. So they wait for sometime but then eventually leave (break the relation). There are many more examples but I am giving just a few. The background is that he lost his father young, and was brought up by his mother. His mother however, has not received formal education and so could not support him through his schooling when he was growing up. She was instead over- protective of him. In other words, he was not exposed to different experiences/challenges and was not given supportive instruction. I wonder if that is what led to him being this way. He is not street smart. So I want to know if I am confusing two different things or if Vygotksy's cultural line of development can be extended to my example as well?

Also, when Vygotsky talks about the 4 stages of development with regard to memory and mnemonics, do children move from one stage to another due to external aid or does the child realize that the previous stage has flaws and does not work all the time and so moves to the next one by himself/herself? The answer is not very explicit in the readings. 

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