Prediction of First Grade Academic Performance from Kindergarten Perceptual-Motor Data

Abstract

Abstract A review of recent research identified a number of studies correlating various perceptual-motor and academic readiness measures for young children. However, the majority of these reports were concerned with concurrent prediction, i.e., data for perceptual-motor and academic readiness variables were collected simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to use data on two perceptual-motor variables and one academic measure collected for kindergarten children to predict their first grade academic performance. Results of the study indicated that all of the predictor measures were poor estimates of first grade performance, either individually or in a canonical analysis with the first grade measures serving as criteria.