Relationship between visuomotor and handwriting skills of children in kindergarten.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the performance of children in kindergarten on the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) and their ability to copy letters legibly. METHOD. Sixty typically developing children in kindergarten aged 64 months to 75 months (30 girls and 30 boys) were administered the VMI and the Scale of Children's Readiness In PrinTing (SCRIPT). The SCRIPT requires children to copy 26 lower case letters and 8 upper case letters from a model. RESULTS. A significant relationship was found between subjects' performance on the VMI and ability to copy letters legibly. In addition, as subjects' ability to copy the forms on the VMI increased, a concomitant increase in ability to copy letters was also found. There were no gender differences in performance on the VMI or on the SCRIPT. CONCLUSION. The findings of this study suggest that most children in kindergarten similar to those in this study will be ready for handwriting instruction in the latter part of the kindergarten year.