The Beery Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration: An Investigation of Reliability

Abstract

The Beery Developmental Test of Visual-MotorIntegration was used in a reliability study with elementary school children. The results indicate sufficient scorer reliability and stability to merit its use with young children.Form-copying has long been considered a valid measure of perceptual-motor development in children. This fact is reflected in the importance of this kind of performance in diagnostic batteries used with children. The BenderGestalt Test (1938) has been the most popular instrument in this area. However, despite extensive clinical research, the usefulness of this test is somewhat limited for the school psychologist because it requires time-consuming individual administration and interpretation.Other efforts to define more precisely the import and genetic course of form-copying have led to the development of another test of this behavior. The Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (1967) combines the vast research in this area with innovation in test design. The VMI presents a series of 24 designs in booklet form. The original placement of the design is age-graded, and was determined by normative studies with groups of children from age 3 to 14. The booklet can be administered equally well individually or in groups. Administration and scoring procedures are explicit, so that a classroom teacher can perform either 48 task. The provision of a large number of items, together with the option of group administration, constitute signal advantages of this test of form-copying over traditional clinical tests. Clear and simple scoring criteria allow both clinical and quantitative interpretation of the child's performance.The study reported here investigated the test-retest and split-half reliability of the VMI with classes of second, fourth, and sixth grade children. The children were pupils in a suburban school district of a large midwestern city. The test-retest interval was one week. The test was administered in group form to one class at each grade level. There were 31 2nd graders, 25 4th-graders, and 27 6th-graders in the sample.The test-retest correlations for the three grades and the total for all grades indicate that the test possesses sufficient reliability to be useful with children in the elementary grades (Table I). There are no significant differences in the reliability of the test between boys and girls.The inter-scorer reliability coefficients were determined when the test was scored by two independent scorers (Table II). The scoring was done by teachers and advanced undergraduate students who were studying for their teaching certificates. This procedure was used to obtain reliability data which would be representative of the test's use by teachers. The data indicate

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“…A higher score indicates greater function in visual motor integration. The test has high split‐half reliability ( r = .74), test–retest reliability ( r = .62–.84; Ryckman & Rentfrow, ), and interrater reliability (κ = 0.94–0.98; Bo et al, ). In this study, the test also had high split‐half reliability ( r = .72).…”

Occupational Therapy Effects on Visual-Motor Skills in Preschool Children

“…Reliability and validity for the VMI have been reported across age groups (De Mers, Wright, & Dappen, 1981;Klein, 1978). Rykman and Rentfrow (1971) report the split-half reliability of the VMI in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grade to be r = 0.74. Test-retest reliability was established between two independent scorers within a 1-week time interval and were .62 and .84 for each scorer, respectively (Rykman & Rentfrow).…”

Construct Validity of Beery's Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration for Taiwanese Children

“…Analysis of the normative sample has indicated that it is reasonably representative of children in the United States (Beery, 1989). The VMI test has become one of the most popular tests used to assess visual-motor function because of its short administration time, high inter-rater reliability (the median coefficient based on research is .93), high test-retest reliability (the median coefficient based on research is .81), good concurrent validity, and predictive validity (Beery & Buktenica, 1967;Klein, 1978;Lepkin & Pryzwansky, 1983;Liu, 1972;Porter & Binder, 1981;Ryckman & Rentfrow, 1971). No significant differences in scores have been found between individual and group administrations of the VMI test (Pryzwansky, 1977).…”