Abstract
Background: Visual motor integration plays an important role in academic skills of learners in the early school years and can have an impact on their overall academic performance.Aim: This study aimed to determine the influence of socio-economic status (SES) on changes in visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor coordination over a period of three years.Setting: Four school districts in the North West province of South Africa were used.Methods: Five hundred and seventy-three learners (282 boys, 291 girls) were randomly selected (representing different SES schools) and evaluated at baseline during 2010 when they were in Grade 1 (6.9 years ±0.38) and again three years later in 2013 (9.9 years ±0.42) as part of a longitudinal research study. The Beery Visual-Motor Integration Test 4th edition was used to evaluate the visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor coordination skills at baseline and three years later.Results: Baseline measurements were higher among high SES learners in all three skills. Although learners from high SES still outperformed the learners from low SES three years later, low SES learners showed statistically significant improvements over the three years in visual-motor integration (88.24 to 89.85, p=0.041) and visual perception (89.69 to 90.04, p≤0.001).Conclusion: Age-related development and improvement of the visual-motor integration skills were reported over the three year period. However, more learners from the low SES still showed delays in these skills. Delays in the development of these skills could contribute to poorer academic and learning-related achievements.
Highlights
The development of Visual-motor Integration (VMI) occurs from birth until about 15 years and is described as the transference of Visual Perception (VP) in motor functions that play an important role in the harmonious interaction of hand–eye coordination (Sanghavi & Kelkar 2005; Weil & Cunningham-Amundson 1994)
And moderately practically significant improvements were found for VP skills in the group (p ≤ 0.001, d = 0.22) and in the low Socio-economic Status (SES) group (p ≤ 0.001, d = 0.41), TABLE 2: Significant differences from 2010 to 2013 in visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor coordination in the group and per socio-economic status
The results of the present study indicate that the VMI, VP and Motor Coordination (MC) skills of learners representing the low SES group improved over time in comparison to that of learners from the high SES group, who showed no improvement
Summary
Visual-motor Integration (VMI) plays an important role in academic skills of learners in the early school years and can have an impact on their reading, writing, mathematical skills or overall academic performance (Chen, Bleything & Lim 2011; Kramer & Hinojosa 2009; Marr & Cermak 2002; Pienaar Barhorst & Twisk 2013; Sortor & Kulp 2003).The development of VMI occurs from birth until about 15 years and is described as the transference of Visual Perception (VP) in motor functions that play an important role in the harmonious interaction of hand–eye coordination (Sanghavi & Kelkar 2005; Weil & Cunningham-Amundson 1994). Case-Smith and O’Brien (2010) report that children are not born with adequate VMI skills, but that these skills develop from reflexes and become more controlled and coordinated with increasing age. Visual-motor Integration (VMI) plays an important role in academic skills of learners in the early school years and can have an impact on their reading, writing, mathematical skills or overall academic performance (Chen, Bleything & Lim 2011; Kramer & Hinojosa 2009; Marr & Cermak 2002; Pienaar Barhorst & Twisk 2013; Sortor & Kulp 2003). The sensory function, or otherwise called visual-receiving component, is the process of refusal, organising of information from the environment as well as the specific cognitive functions that produce the visual cognitive component to be able to organise, give structure and interpret visual stimuli, in other words, to give meaning to what is seen (Cheatum & Hammond 2000). Visual motor integration plays an important role in academic skills of learners in the early school years and can have an impact on their overall academic performance
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