The relationship between visual-perceptual motor abilities and clumsiness in children with and without learning disabilities.

Abstract

One visual-perceptual test, four visual-motor tests, and a test of motor impairment were administered to 22 children with learning disabilities and 22 children without learning disabilities, aged 5 to 8 years. The children with learning disabilities were divided into two groups--"clumsy" and "nonclumsy"--based on their scores on the motor impairment test. It was hypothesized that the clumsy children with learning disabilities would score significantly lower on visual-perceptual and visual-motor tests than the nonclumsy children with learning disabilities who, in turn, would score significantly lower than the children without learning disabilities. It was further hypothesized that there would be a significant correlation between the degree of clumsiness and the degree of visual-perceptual and visual-motor deficit. Analysis of the data indicated that, as expected, the clumsy children with learning disabilities scored significantly lower than the children without learning disabilities (the control group). There was no significant difference between the clumsy and nonclumsy children with learning disabilities or between the nonclumsy children with learning disabilities and the control group. Degree of clumsiness significantly correlated with scores on four of five tests. Results are discussed in terms of subtypes of learning disabilities and sample size.