OBJECTIVE. This study used a novel device to make video games accessible to children with developmental disabilities (DD) by modifying the training software and interfaces to enhance motor training. METHOD. In the pretest–posttest design, 20 children (13 boys, 7 girls; mean age = 5.2 yr) with DD received adaptive upper-limb motor rehabilitation consisting of fifteen 30-min individual sessions 3 times per week for 5 wk. RESULTS. Improvement in Beery–Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration and Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, Second Edition, scores for children with DD indicated significant differences between pretest and posttest. CONCLUSION. The rehabilitation device modified for the needs of children with DD is effective in improving visual–motor performance of children with DD.

We determined whether a widely used assessment of visual–motor skills, the Beery–Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual–Motor Integration (VMI), is appropriate for use as an outcome measure for handwriting interventions. A two-group pretest–posttest design was used with 207 kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. Two well-established handwriting measures and the VMI were administered pre- and postintervention. The intervention group participated in the Size Matters Handwriting Program for 40 sessions, and the control group received standard instruction. Paired and independent-samples t tests were used to analyze group differences. The intervention group demonstrated significant improvements on the handwriting measures, with change scores having mostly large effect sizes. We found no significant difference in change scores on the VMI, t(202) = 1.19, p = .23. Results of this study suggest that the VMI may not detect changes in handwriting related to occupational therapy intervention.

OBJECTIVE. This study examined the efficacy of a 10-wk Tier 1 Response to Intervention (RtI) program developed in collaboration with classroom teachers to improve the fine motor and visual–motor skills of general education kindergarten students. METHOD. We recruited 113 students in six elementary schools. Two general education kindergarten classrooms at each school participated in the study. Classrooms were randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups. Fine motor skills, pencil grip, and visual–motor integration were measured at the beginning of the school year and after the 10-wk intervention. RESULTS. The intervention group demonstrated a statistically significant increase in fine motor and visual–motor skills, whereas the control group demonstrated a slight decline in both areas. Neither group demonstrated a change in pencil grip. CONCLUSION. This study provides preliminary evidence that a Tier 1 RtI program can improve fine motor and visual–motor skills in kindergarten students.

OBJECTIVE. Children with fine-motor problems and handwriting difficulties often are referred for occupational therapy. The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of a short-term treatment on the fine-motor and graphomotor skills of first-grade students. METHOD. We recruited 52 first-grade students who had scored below the 21st percentile on the Visual–Motor Integration test from schools in a city with a low socioeconomic, mixed (Arab and Jewish) population. The children were randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group. Before and after the intervention, we administered two tests to both groups. RESULTS. Students in the intervention group made significant gains both in the total score on the graphomotor test (Developmental Test of Visual Perception) and on the fine-motor test (Bruininks–Oseretsky Motor Development Scale). CONCLUSION. This study provided preliminary evidence of the efficacy of a short-term graphomotor intervention. The results increased the feasibility of implementing occupational therapy intervention in the Israeli school system, allowing treatment of more children using the same resources.

The effectiveness of a graded series of craft activities on improving visuomotor skills was tested with an inpatient child psychiatry population. A standardized test of visuomotor integration served as a pretest and posttest to compare two nonconcurrent groups in the same setting. The inpatient program was the same for both groups, except that the treatment group (n = 33) participated in a graded craft sequence, while the control group (n = 24) did not. The frequency and degree of improvement were significantly greater in the treatment group. The degree of improvement in both groups was significantly related to age, IQ, and diagnosis of affective disorder, but not to sex, psychotropic medication, number of treatment sessions, or other diagnoses, including conduct disorder and attention deficit disorder. Mean age and IQ did not differ significantly between the two groups. The study tentatively supports a graded crafts program as a means for the improvement of visuomotor skills, but suggests that further research be done with matched groups.

Differences in hand size and strength, vestibular function, visuomotor integration, and praxis in preschool children as a function of socioeconomic status were investigated. Twenty-two children of lower socioeconomic status, aged 3 to 5 years, were each matched with a child of higher socioeconomic status on the basis of race, sex, hand dominance, age, height, and weight. Measures used were the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery, 1982), hand size and strength, the Standing Balance subtests of the Southern California Sensory Integration Tests (Ayres, 1972), the Bowman Unilateral Hopping Test (Flannigan, 1987), the Southern California Postrotary Nystagmus Test (Ayres, 1975), the praxis tests of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT) (Ayres, 1984), and the Bowman Quality of Prone Extension Scale (Etheredge, 1987). Analyses with two separate Hotelling’s T² for correlated samples (Huck, Cormier, & Bounds, 1974) revealed significant differences in hand size and strength as well as praxis, and subsequent post hoc analyses revealed better scores for the higher socioeconomic status group on right hand strength and on the Praxis on Verbal Command subtest of the SIPT. A paired t test also revealed that the higher socioeconomic status group scored better on visuomotor integration. Analysis with Hotelling’s T² revealed no significant differences between the two groups on the vestibular measures. The results of this study suggest that on certain tests used by occupational therapists, children from a higher socioeconomic status group may function at a higher developmental level than those from a lower socioeconomic status group. When interpreting clients’ test results, therefore, therapists should consider the possible influence of socioeconomic status.