Perceptual-motor Training Research Articles

Perceptual Motor and Sensory Integrative Therapy for Learning Disabilities

The effects of sensory integrative therapy (SI), perceptual motor training (PM) and no treatment (NT) were compared in 103 children with learning disabilities at the Department of Paediatrics, Division of Neurology and Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada.

A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Sensory Integrative Therapy and Perceptual-Motor Training in Treating Children with Learning Disabilities

This study compared the effect of sensory integration therapy (SI), perceptual-motor training (PM) and no treatment (NT) on the performance of 103 children with learning disabilities and sensory integrative dysfunction, aged 58 to 107 months, who were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups or to no treatment. After receiving a total of 72 1-hour sessions of therapy for 3 hours per week, PM-treated subjects showed significant gains over the other two groups, primarily in gross motor performance. SI-treated subjects showed an advantage in motor planning. There were no accompanying group differences in visual perception, handwriting readiness, copying ability, cognitive, academic, language and attentional skills or in self-concept. These findings demonstrate motor gains resulting from motor treatments without carry-over to functional skills and abilities more directly associated with school performance.

The Efficacy of Sensory Integration Therapy for Children with Learning Disability

This study was designed to compare the effect of sensory integration therapy (SI), perceptual-motor training (PM) and no-treatment (NT) on the performance of 30 children with learning disability and sensory integrative dysfunction, aged 72 to 99 months, who were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments or no-treatment. After recieving 24 one-hour weekly sessions of therapy, SI-treated subjects made significant gains over the other two groups in selected aspects of sensorimotor functioning that showed some consistency with SI theory. No group differences were evident in higher level cognitive, language and academic performance. These results have implications for the validity of the sensory integration approach and therapists' expectations for the outcome of therapy.

The Efficacy of Sensory Integration Therapy for Children with Learning Disability

This study was designed to compare the effect of sensory integration therapy (SI), perceptual-motor training (PM) and no-treatment (NT) on the performance of 30 children with learning disability and sensory integrative dysfunction, aged 72 to 99 months, who were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments or no-treatment. After recieving 24 one-hour weekly sessions of therapy, SI-treated subjects made significant gains over the other two groups in selected aspects of sensorimotor functioning that showed some consistency with SI theory. No group differences were evident in higher level cognitive, language and academic performance. These results have implications for the validity of the sensory integration approach and therapists' expectations for the outcome of therapy.

Observations on the Motor Development of Visually Impaired Children Interpretations from Video Recordings

Summary Blind children develop in the same sequence as normal sighted children but on starting school they do not perform so well or respond spontaneously compared to their sighted peers. Visually impaired young children have marked delays in the development of locomotion, self-initiated mobility, and reacting to sound cues. An analysis of movement activities recorded on video demonstrated poor posture, inco-ordination and poor sequencing of movements with lack of body image and a deficit in spatial relationships. It appears that there is a great need for perceptual motor training during early childhood. This paper proposes that there is a need for parental education and advice from physiotherapists on handling visually impaired babies and that pre-school motor developmental programmes are essential for optimal development of basic skills in visually impaired children. Blind children develop in the same sequence as normal sighted children but on starting school they do not perform so well or respond spontaneously compared to their sighted peers. Visually impaired young children have marked delays in the development of locomotion, self-initiated mobility, and reacting to sound cues. An analysis of movement activities recorded on video demonstrated poor posture, inco-ordination and poor sequencing of movements with lack of body image and a deficit in spatial relationships. It appears that there is a great need for perceptual motor training during early childhood. This paper proposes that there is a need for parental education and advice from physiotherapists on handling visually impaired babies and that pre-school motor developmental programmes are essential for optimal development of basic skills in visually impaired children. Biography: Finuala Murphy trained at the Dublin School of Physiotherapy and has spent many years specialising in paediatrics. She graduated from the University of Dublin with MEd and DipTP in 1982. She now lectures in the School of Physiotherapy at Trinity College, Dublin, with major responsibility for the teaching of paediatrics and a course on normal development. She is actively involved in making videos of infant development and research on head control in newborn babies. Mary O'Driscoll trained at the School of Physiotherapy, Otago, South Island, New Zealand. She has travelled widely and gained experience in general physiotherapy in Vienna, Canada, England and Ireland. Since 1981 she has worked with blind children and adults and devised motor programmes for visually impaired schoolchildren at St Mary's School in Dublin. She is adviser to the National Council for the Blind.

"One jumped off the balance beam": meta-analysis of perceptual-motor training.

This study reports the findings of a meta-analysis, the application of statistical methods of data synthesis from individual studies, reviewing 180 studies assessing the efficacy of perceptual-motor training. The primary finding indicated that perceptual-motor training is not an effective intervention technique for improving academic, cognitive, or perceptual-motor variables. The data were refined into more discrete groupings spanning the diverse assortment of outcomes, programs, subject, grades, and design variables. For each aggregated subset, support was rendered for the primary finding. It was concluded that extant research, although possessing methodological flaws not allowing definitive conclusions in previous narrative reviews, has demonstrated that perceptual-motor training is not effective and should be questioned as a feasible intervention technique for exceptional children.

Are we assessing the linguistic factors critical in early reading?

The early detection of reading and other learning problems is of paramount importance if we are to develop appropriate educational programs before the child has experienced years of failure. Despite the proliferation of kindergarten prediction studies (Book, 1974; Eaves, Ken dall, and Crichton, 1974; Feshbach, Adelman, and Fuller, 1977; Glazzard, 1982; Jansky and deHirsch, 1972; Perry, Guidubaldi, and Kehle, 1979; Satz, Taylor, Friel, and Fletcher, 1978; Taylor and Ivimey, 1980; Telegdy, 1975), there is a continuing concern that our interest in early prediction exceeds our capacity to identify children at risk for future failure (Lindsay and Wedell, 1982; Rubin, Balow, Dorle, and Rosen, 1978). It is possible that in our investigation of children's performance, we are not asking the right questions. The present study was based on the premise that linguis tic factors shown to be critical in the reading process are generally overlooked in kindergarten and first-grade screening instruments. Until recently, the most popular explanation of reading problems focused on purported deficits in visual perception and perceptual-motor skills. Major screening batteries reflected this research emphasis by including a wide range of perceptual-motor tasks (e.g., blocks, puzzles, drawing, sorting). It was not surprising, therefore, to find that training programs based on these batteries emphasized perceptual-motor train ing, almost to the exclusion of other aspects of functioning. Most re searchers now question the visual-perceptual deficit explanation of read ing disability and provide data that directly contradict it (Benton, 1975; Vellutino, 1977, 1979). There is now extensive documentation in the literature of the impor tance of language-based skills in reading achievement (Gleitman and Rozin, 1977; Liberman, 1982; Liberman and Shankweiler, 1979; Liber man, Shankweiler, Liberman, Fowler, and Fischer, 1977; Perfetti and Lesgold, 1977, 1979; Vellutino, 1977, 1979). Several reading-related lan guage measures provide direct evidence of the many facets of linguistic processing, as opposed to visual processing, that are significantly related to reading. Two such tasks—the Liberman-Shankweiler Segmentation

Perceptual-Motor Training: Has the Term Lost its Utility?

Perceptual-Motor Training: Has the Term Lost its Utility?

Body Management Activities: A Guide to Perceptual-Motor Training

Body Management Activities: A Guide to Perceptual-Motor Training

Reading and Perceptual-Motor Performance: Can We Strengthen Them Simultaneously? 1,2

The study attempted to ascertain whether a direct remedial-reading program would improve performance on a perceptual-motor test as it strengthened reading skill. Subjects were 119 intermediate grade pupils whose average reading achievement was more than 2 years below CA. They were randomly assigned to a remedial-reading program or to regular classrooms for instruction in reading. A comparison of pre- and posttreatment functioning on perceptual-motor and reading measures revealed that: (a) The experimentals' gain on the perceptual-motor instrument was significantly and dramatically greater than the controls' improvement on the same test; and (b) while both treatment groups' reading skill appeared to improve substantially, the experimentals' gain was not significantly greater than the controls'. Thus, the experimentals' more impressive functioning on the perceptual-motor test cannot readily be attributed to reading achievement. Nevertheless, findings indicate that performance on a perceptual-motor measure can be positively affected by a reading instructional program which does not explicitly employ perceptual-motor training. This seriously questions the belief, popular among perceptual-motor practitioners, that perceptual-motor functioning can be improved only through direct training. If perceptual-motor functioning is strengthened concomitant with, and indirectly by, standard remedial-reading instruction, educators may think twice about routinely assigning reading-disabled students to perceptual-motor training programs when the more direct method not only achieves the goal of perceptual-motor training but teaches reading skill as well.

Effect of a group perceptual-motor training program on kindergarten children.

For 21 boys and 24 girls in a middle-class kindergarten no differences in Identification of Body Parts, Copy Forms, or Motor Skills Test of the Rosner-Richman Perceptual Survey were noted. Scores increased from September to May testing on copying and motor skills, e.g., walking a rail, balancing, handling balls, as expected.

Improving Motor Abilities

Many professionals in the field of learning disabilities talk about the need for motor training as a part of the total remedial process. We hear and read such terms as sensorimotor training or perceptual-motor training and other combinations. At present, our field remains divided in opinion as to whether motor training under any name contributes directly to improved academic functioning. It is not our intent to debate the issue. We do believe, however, that there are learning disabled children who exhibit severe motor dysfunction along with their academic disabilities. Whether there is a direct link between instruction in motor ability and improved academic functioning hardly seems the crucial question. The 10- or 12-year-old child who has such a motor impairment that he is unable to participate in group activities has a real problem, no matter what academic abilities or disabilities he may possess. This month we review a variety of resources that might be used in developing programs to improve motor abilities. The materials range from a comprehensive teaching and management program to several other materials with a more limited scope. At present, motor training materials are often considered frills to be bought if there is a little money left over at the end of the year. The editors hope such materials become a more common purchase in the future. — C.V.E., B.W.

Perceptual-Motor Training for Handicapped Children. John P. Glavin Ed. New York: MSS Educat. Publ., 1975, 246pp., cloth $12, paperback $6.25

Perceptual-Motor Training for Handicapped Children. John P. Glavin Ed. New York: MSS Educat. Publ., 1975, 246pp., cloth $12, paperback $6.25

Effects of a Perceptual-Motor Training Program on Kindergarten Children

The immediate and long-term effects of perceptual-motor training on kindergarten children (6 girls, 4 boys) were measured by the Gesell Copy Forms Test. A significant increase from the pretest to the first posttest was made by the experimental group but none by the control group ( ns = 5). The second posttest showed that these gains were relatively long-term rather than short-term.

Kephart's Perceptual Motor Training Program

(1976). Kephart's Perceptual Motor Training Program. Journal of Physical Education and Recreation: Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 58-59.

Effects of Perceptual-Motor Training on Preschool Children: A Multivariate Approach

Abstract This study was designed to assess the effects of a specifically designed perceptual-motor training program on the level of perceptual-motor development, self-concept, and academic ability of kindergarten children. Subjects for the study were 40 kindergarten children randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups. Each group received the same kindergarten program with one exception, the experimental group was exposed to a specifically designed perceptual-motor program 30 min daily for 5 mo, while the control group received a free play period for 30 min daily. Results of the study indicated that the data tended to support the specificity of training concept. The variables showing the greatest change were the perceptual-motor tests which measured changes on specific aspects of the training program. There appeared to be some immediate transfer to academic abilities but this was not pronounced enough to suggest that perceptual-motor training was of real benefit in developing academic abilities for normal kinderga...

Visual-Spatial Organization and Reading

In an intact class of grade two children, cognitive spatial ability was better than the children's visual-perceptual ability in differentiating good from poorer readers. The visual-perceptual skills measured by the Frostig test were insufficient for advanced reading at the grade two level and an unnecessary requirement for high reading ability. The results suggest that perceptual-motor training will be the most effective when used preventively rather than remedially and when the programs are implemented during the early years of development at the time the child is in Piaget's preoperational stage. The study supported an alternate theoretical framework for understanding the relationship of visual-perceptual deficits and reading. In addition, it provided initial instructional procedures that can be used in teaching important cognitive, visual-spatial abilities.

The Effects of Kephart's Perceptual Motor-Training on a Reading Clinic Sample

The present study is concerned with the effects of Kephart's perceptual-motor training procedures upon the reading performance of poor readers in a reading clinic population with average and above average intelligence. The study was conducted during a six-week summer session. This study also compares the effectiveness of training upon the reading performance of children with binocular fusion difficulties and those having no visual defects. Subjects were of average and above average intelligence in school grades 4 to 12. There were 41 subjects in each group, experimental and control, matched for age grade, IQ, and reading performance. All pupils received two hours of reading instruction daily. Experimental pupils received three types of perceptual-motor training for a half hour daily for six weeks: chalkboard training consisting of four tracing exercises in balance, laterality, and directionality. Results showed that perceptual-motor training had no effect upon reading comprehension of poor readers, yet effects upon oral reading were close to significant (.10 > p >.05). Kephart's perceptual-motor exercises did not improve the reading performance of children with binocular fusion difficulties.

Feasibility of perceptual-motor training for Headstart children: an empirical test.

Difference scores on the Bender-Gestalt for 4 Headstart children given experience in visual-motor activities suggested improvement over performance of controls without such experience although for another group of 7 pairs the comparison was nonsignificant.

A Look at Perceptual-Motor Training

A Look at Perceptual-Motor Training