Effect of a visual motor program on school achievement: a longitudinal study.

Abstract

Controversy is evident concerning the efficacy of visual-motor training and success in school. Hamill (3) concluded after an extensive review that the effectiveness of these programs was not substantiated by the evidence. A contrary conclusion was drawn by Greenspan (2) when relating the visual motor programs to reading. The present study, a follow-up (4), investigated the relationship between the effect of a visual motor program on kindergarten children and their subsequent school achievement in first, second and third grades. Subjects were enrolled in six classes. of three elementary schools in Grand Forks, North Dakota. All schools had predominantly middle-class populations. Of the 60 students involved in all four years of the study, 26 were males and 34 were females. The mean intelligence score, as measured by the Slosson Intelligence Test, was 119.35 and ranged from 85 to 154. The mean chronological age was 66.42 mo. in kindergarten. During the first through third grades, the vocabulary, comprehension and composite scores were screened from the following tasks: Gates-MacGinitie, Primary A (first grade); Gates-MacGinitie, Primary G (second grade); and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (third grade). While the testing took place over a 4-yr. period, the treatment was used only during the kindergarten year. Treatment groups were used on a classroom basis such that a separate treatment group was formed for each of the three schools. The group (school) using the visual-motor approach followed a program developed by Getman, et al. (1). They also received a basal reading series with supplemental language experience activities. The other two groups did not overtly subscribe to a visual-motor program; one program emphasized language experience with learning centers; the third group used informal readiness activities in addition to a basal reader approach (traditional group). See Lewy, et al. (4) for complete descriptions of the programs. Using the Slosson Intelligence Test scores as covariates, the long-term effects of the three programs were assessed. At the first and second grades, no significant differences were observed. However, in the third grade, the visual-motor group was significantly lower than the traditional group on both the reading and composite adjusted means. No significant adjusted means were observed with the language experience group and the visual-motor group. It appears that, in terms of the measures used in this study, the visual-motor program imparted no special advantage.