Evaluating fine perceptual-motor skills in children with mild intellectual disability

Abstract

Over the years, several studies have indicated that delay in perceptual-motor development and impaired motor organization is strongly associated with the level of cognitive functioning and performance in children. The aim of the present research study was to assess the fine perceptual-motor skills of children with mild intellectual disability 7-9-years-old and the comparison of their performance with two groups of typically developing children with the same chronological and a corresponding mental age. Our research sample consisted of 129 children between the ages of four and nine years whilst the experimental group had a total of 43 children (7-9-years-old) with mild intellectual disability. As an assessment tool of fine perceptual-motor skills we used a battery of tasks constructed in accordance with other commonly used standardized tests that measure psychomotor abilities. Furthermore, several comparisons were carried out in order to investigate our experimental hypotheses. Overall, our results revealed that children with mild intellectual disability scored lower in the tasks compared to typically developing children of equal chronological age but significantly higher than the group of typically developing children of the same mental age (preschoolers). The results of the psychometric properties of our designed tasks (reliability, validity) verify the high-quality psychometric characteristics of the designed tool.