Category Archives: Visual

Visual and Motor Cohesion: The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test

Assessments, Visual

The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test (more commonly known as the Beery VMI) detects difficulties in connecting visual perception and motor skills. The test is a Visual-Motor Integration Test (VMI) for ages two and up. It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete, and has two supplemental tests that last five minutes each, as needed.Beery VMI

beeryvmi1This VMI test examines how well an individual integrates visual and motor skills by having them look at 24 drawings. (There is a short form of this test that is often used with two to eight-year-olds, which only tests 15 drawings.) The drawings present simple geometric shapes from the most simple to the most complex. The examinee looks at the shape, then copies each drawing into the Test Booklet.

If the full or short form tests indicate a need for further testing, then the two supplemental tests are administered. These two supplemental tests are the VMI Visual Perception Test and the VMI Motor Coordination Test. They follow the same form as the main test, which ensures that the results are easy to compare.

The starter kit for the Beery VMI includes a manual, 10 full form tests, 10 short form tests, 10 Visual Perception supplemental forms, and 10 Motor Coordination supplemental forms.

Various teaching materials aid this test. These tools help improve visual, motor, and visual-motor function for children pre-elementary school. The booklet of Developmental Teaching Activities headlines the teaching materials. This booklet includes over 250 activities to help a child establish an understanding of art, pre-reading and pre-writing, and athletic skills. Each level has activities directed towards gross motor, fine motor, visual perception, and visual-motor development.

Next in the line of teaching activities is called My Book of Shapes. From the title, you can get a sense of its contents. This book contains 100 geometric exercises that children in preschool and kindergarten can use to improve their motor, visual, and motor-visual function. These activities give children a jump-start for recognizing letter and numeral shapes that the child will experience in school.

beeryvmi2The Beery VMI Stepping Stones Parent Checklist provides an easily accessible list of key developmental “stepping stones.” This list helps parents to track a child’s development from pre-kindergarten through early elementary. While many schools provide developmental feedback, this home checklist helps you observe your child’s development outside of a school setting.

For parents and professionals, the Developmental Wall Chart for Visual-Motor Integration is a colorful chart of gross motor, fine motor, and visual-motor stepping stones. This chart marks development from birth to age six. Many parents and professionals find it useful to have this clear chart on hand for easy reference.

The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test is currently in its 6th edition. This edition was standardized based on a national sample of 1,737 children aged 2 to 18, and the adult norms derive from a sample of 1,021 individuals aged 18 to 100. The Manual for this test includes about 600 norms from birth through age 6 to track and understand visual and motor development.

The Beery VMI Test finds any weaknesses in a child’s development, but also effectively assesses adults of all ages. The Teaching Materials improve any underdeveloped areas, both proactively and reactively, to provide successful integration of visual perception and motor skills.

From Rattles to Writing: a guest post by Barbara A. Smith, MS, OTR/L

Fine Motor, Handwriting, Visual, , ,

Barbara Smith, MS, OTR/L, author of From Rattles to Writing: A Parent’s Guide to Hand Skills, recently wrote a post about her book on the blog Two Peds in a Pod.

This groundbreaking guide describes the songs, games, toys, activities, and adaptations that help children develop the visual-perceptual skills needed to read and the eye-hand coordination to write.

Blocks and stacking are especially important in early development – read more on the blog.

from-rattles-to-writing

Find From Rattles to Writing, and other Fine Motor activities, at therapro.com.

Solving Visual Tracking Problems

Handwriting, Visual,

Current research shows that up to half of children in classrooms have visual problems – most often with eye tracking. This affects reading and writing, especially during the early stages of learning handwriting.

To solve this problem, therapists were highlighting the bottom line of regular lined paper – where the letter goes. Therapro decided to provide a solution, and created Highlighter Paper.

highlighter-paper

Since children are sometimes confused about where to begin, the Highlighter Paper is indented – with a little star next to where they should start writing.

Some types are wider, for those just beginning handwriting, and some have thinner spaces (for the more advanced). There is even room for a picture in some styles – with space underneath to write about the picture:

Which size should my child use?

Highlighter Paper comes in yellow and blue. There are 4 different sizes of paper. The lines on each get progressively thinner as the child develops handwriting skills:

  • Kindergarten Story Paper is landscape with space for a story and 2 lines for writing
  • Kindergarten Writing Paper is landscape with 5 lines per page
  • WideLine Writing Paper is landscape with 7 lines
  • NarrowLines Writing Paper is portrait with 13 lines per page.

For the first half of first grade, we recommend a wider lined paper. For the second half of first grade, the hand skills should have progressed enough to use a narrower lined paper. As handwriting skills develop, children will have better control and don’t need the wider spaced papers – they can gradually move up to narrowed lined paper.

We also offer Reading Guide Strips, which allow you to easily track print through a transparent tinted window.