Visual-Motor Skills Performance on the Beery-VMI: A Study of Canadian Kindergarten Children

摘要

The Beery VMI is one of the standardized assessment tools most widely used by occupational therapists to assess visual-motor integration. Currently, no specific norms exist for Canadian children. This study was developed to assess whether kindergarten children in Canada compared similarly to the norms established in the U.S. sample of the Beery VMI in order to validate its use with Canadian children. Possible gender differences were also examined. The Beery VMI was administered to 151 kindergarten children, aged 5 to 6 years, at the end of the school year. The data collection took place in seven schools, where the participants were individually assessed. T-tests were used to compare the mean standard scores of the Canadian sample to those provided in the Beery VMI, as well as gender differences. Overall, the study sample showed a similar score (p = .997) compared to the U.S. norms, as well as a significant gender difference; girls obtained higher mean scores than boys (p = .003). These findings support the use of the Beery VMI reference norms to interpret performance results obtained by Canadian kindergarten children. However, the significant gender difference observed should be addressed in future studies.