The Computerized Perceptual Motor Skills Assessment: A new visual perceptual motor skills evaluation tool for children in early elementary grades.
A quick iPad game can reliably flag motor-based handwriting problems in early elementary kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Howe et al. (2017) built a short computer game that tests eye-hand coordination in kindergarten and first-grade kids.
They gave the game to the children with typical development and 30 who had messy handwriting.
The team checked if the game scores matched gold-standard paper tests and if they stayed the same when kids retook it two weeks later.
What they found
The game scores stayed steady on repeat testing (ICC ≥ 0.80).
They lined up well with the paper tests and clearly split the neat writers from the messy ones.
How this fits with other research
Smith et al. (2021) also link fine-motor skill to thinking skill, but in older kids with ADHD.
Gilboa et al. (2014) show that for kids with NF1, writing trouble comes more from poor planning than from motor skill—so use the CPMSA first to rule in or rule out motor roots.
Samyn et al. (2015) warn that questionnaires and hands-on tasks can measure different things; the CPMSA gives you an objective computer score that parents can’t over-rate.
Why it matters
You now have a five-minute iPad game that tells you if a child’s messy writing is a motor issue or something else.
Use it during intake to decide whether to start pencil-grip drills, cognitive planning work, or both.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Visual perceptual motor skills have been proposed as underlying courses of handwriting difficulties. However, there is no evaluation tool currently available to assess these skills comprehensively and to serve as a sensitive measure. The purpose of this study was to validate the Computerized Perceptual Motor Skills Assessment (CPMSA), a newly developed evaluation tool for children in early elementary grades. Its test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, discriminant validity, and responsiveness were examined in 43 typically developing children and 26 children with handwriting difficulty. The CPMSA demonstrated excellent reliability across all subtests with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs)≥0.80. Significant moderate correlations between the domains of the CPMSA and corresponding gold standards including Beery VMI, the TVPS-3, and the eye-hand coordination subtest of the DTVP-2 demonstrated good concurrent validity. In addition, the CPMSA showed evidence of discriminant validity in samples of children with and without handwriting difficulty. This article provides evidence in support of the CPMSA. The CPMSA is a reliable, valid, and promising measure of visual perceptual motor skills for children in early elementary grades. Directions for future study and improvements to the assessment are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2017.07.010