The Relationship between Visual-Motor Integration and Articulation Disorders in Preschool Children

Abstract

The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of articulation disorders and its relationship with visual-motor integration (VMI) in preschool children. An additional goal was to check for the effect of the child's gender on both articulation disorders and visual-motor integration. The sample consisted of 286 preschool children ages 3 to 6 years and attending preschool institutions in Canton Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We measured visual-motor integration skills by using the Beery VMI- Test of Visual Motor Integration (6th ed.) Short Form and language skills by using the Bosnian test for the assessment of articulation disorders. The prevalence of articulation disorders in the sample was 34.3%. There was a significant difference in VMI between children with and without articulation disorders. The effect of gender was significant for both articulation disorder and VMI, with boys having a higher risk to have articulation disorder and VMI deficit. There is a high prevalence of articulation disorders and VMI deficits in preschool children. Given this high prevalence of visual-motor and speech disorders, preschool institutions should provide early speech and fine-motor screening of the children and subsequent speech and occupational therapy.