Relationship Between Handwriting and the Beery

The Australian Occupational Therapy Journal published research on 240 grade 2 children.  The researchers wanted to determine whether the  three subtests of the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration predicted quality of handwriting across and within groups of boys and girls classified as proficient, at risk or non-proficient writers according to the Concise Assessment Scale for Children’s Handwriting.  The following results were recorded:

1.  proficient writers scored better on the visuomotor integration subtest than non-proficient writers

2.  proficient and at risk writers scored better than non-proficient writers on the motor coordination subtest

3.  no differences were found on the visual perception subtest

4.  girls were more often classified as proficient writers than boys

5.  girls scored better than boys on the motor coordination subtest

6.  statistical analysis indicated that gender and both the visuomotor integration subtest and the motor coordination subtest were significant predictors for the quality of handwriting

The researchers concluded that the visuomotor integration subtest (and to a lesser extent the motor coordination subtest) but not the visual perception subtest significant relates to quality of children’s handwriting although, the relatively little variance explained also points to other abilities and/or task constraints that underlie quality of handwriting.

Reference:  Duiser, I. H. F., van der Kamp, J., Ledebt, A. and Savelsbergh, G. J. P. (2014), Relationship between the quality of children’s handwriting and the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration after one year of writing tuition. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 61: 76–82. doi: 10.1111/1440-1630.12064

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