Comparison of the relationship between two measures of visual-motor coordination and academic achievement

Abstract

Scores from Koppitz' scoring system for the Bender-Gestalt and Beery's Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration for a groupof 86 elementary students referred for psychoeducational evaluation were correlated with Wide Range Achievement Test scores, controlling for WISC-R IQ. Although zero-order correlations of the visualmotor measures with achievement were of moderate magnitude (.33 to .48) and were all statistically significant @<.OI), first-order partial correlations were of lower magnitude (. 13 to .22) and half failed to reach statistical significance @>.05). It was suggested that visual-motor ability may not offer a unique contribution to the prediction of achievement.

Test reviews

“…For 17 children with learning disabilities, correlations between the Visual-Motor Integration subtest of the VMI:4 and the Verbal and Performance sections of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised (WISC-R; Wechsler, 1974) were .48 and .66, respectively (Beery, 1997). Similar results were found by Shapiro and Simpson (1994), Breen, Carlson, and Lehman (1985), and Wright and DeMers (1982). However, a study by Goldstein and Britt (1994) did not find stronger correlations with the nonvocal than vocal section of the WISC-R.…”

“…Generally, correlations between the various editions of the VMI and measures of intellectual ability have ranged from .11 to .66 (Aylward & Schmidt, 1986;Beery, 1997;Wright & DeMers, 1982). As expected, results of the VMI:4 correlate more strongly with nonvocal measures of intellectual ability.…”

“…Similarly, Wright and DeMers (1982) reported correlations of .13, .20, and .17, respectively, between the VMI (Beery, 1967b) and the Reading, Spelling, and Arithmetic subtests of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT; Jastak & Jastak, 1978) after controlling for the effects of intelligence. Finally, Richardson, DiBenedetto, Christ, and Press (1980) noted correlations of .08 and Ϫ.01, respectively, between the VMI and the Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension subtests of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT; Dunn & Markwardt, 1970) after controlling for age and intelligence.…”

Developmental changes in reading do not alter the development of visual processing skills: an application of explanatory item response models in grades K-2

“…Peer reviewed research on the developmental trends relating reading ability to changes in visual processing as measured by tests of visual motor integration can be traced back to the 1960s. Much of this research has been correlational in nature and has found limited evidence of a role for visual processing in explaining individual differences in reading acquisition ( Birch and Belmont, 1965 ; Beery, 1967 ; Busch, 1980 ; Wright and DeMers, 1982 ; Margolese and Kline, 1999 ). On balance these studies have reached similar conclusions which point to a limited role for visual motor skills in reading achievement, and a much stronger role for language based measures such as letter names and sounds, vocabulary, phonological skills, and language comprehension.…”