Perceptual andMotorSkills, 1994, 78, 819-823.

© Perceptual and Motor Skills 1994

VISUAL-MOTOR COORDINATION AND INTELLIGENCE AS

PREDICTORS OF READING, MATHEMATICS, AND
WRITTEN LANGUAGE ABILITY 1

DONALD J. GOLDSTEIN AND THOMAS W. BRITT, JR.

Bowman GraySchoolof Medicine
~ke Forest University

Summary.-Previous research on the relationship between visual-motor coordina-

tion and academic achievement has been equivocal and has frequently not included
controls for the effect of intelligence on achievement. In the present study, scores on
three tests of children's visual-motor coordination correlated moderately to highly with
scores on a test of reading, mathematics, and written language for a sample of 44 ele-
mentary school children referred for learning difficulties. Multiple regression analyses
indicated that visual-motor coordination scores accounted for little unique achievement
test score variance when IQs were included in the equations.

This investigation sought to assess (a) the effectiveness of three tests of

visual-motor performance in predicting reading, mathematics, and written
language achievement and (b) the amount of separate or unique achievement
score variance accounted for by visual-motor test scores over and above the
variance accounted for by intelligence. Previous research regarding the rela-
tionship between visual-motor ability and academic achievement (usually
reading ability) has frequently employed only one test of visual-motor ability
and has been inconclusive (Berninger, Yates, Cartwright, & Rutberg, 1992;
Fowler & Cross, 1986; Knoff, Cotter, & Coyle, 1986; Lesiak, 1984; McKay
& Neale, 1985; Nielson & Sapp, 1991; Vance, Fuller, & Lester, 1986;
Wright & DeMers, 1982). Difficulty in interpreting such research has often
reflected failure of investigators to measure or control for intelligence as a
mediator in the relationship. For example, McKay and Neale (1985) found
that results from the Bender-Gestalt test administered to first-graders were
not good predictors of reading ability at the end of Grade 2. Similarly,
Knoff, et at. (1986) found that neither Bender-Gestalt nor Developmental
Test of Visual-motor Integration scores of gifted elementary school children
accounted for a significant amount of achievement test variance. Vance, et at.
(1986), on the other hand, reported that elementary school students' scores
on the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test-Revised were good predictors of
academic achievement scores. Nielson and Sapp (1991) reported Bender-
Gestalt scores predicted achievement for a sample of low-hirthweight chil-
dren, and Berninger, et at. (1992) foun~ that visual-motor integration mea-

'Address all correspondence to Donald J. Goldstein, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics, Bowman

GNrCay School of Medicine Wake Forest University, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem,
27157. '
820 D. J. GOLDSTEIN & T. W. BRITT, JR.

sures were among the best predictors of spelling achievement in her sample
from Grades 1 to 3.
The present study measured the relative contributions, both individually
and combined, of three different tests of visual-motor coordination to
achievement in reading, mathematics, and written language. Also, the contri-
butions were again assessed after entering intelligence test scores into a for-
ward, stepwise multiple regression analysis to identify the unique variance
accounted for by the visual-motor test scores.
METHOD
The subjects were 44 elementary school children (29 boys), primarily
lower-middle class, between the ages of 6 and 12 years (M = 8.2 yr.), referred
to a university child study center for evaluation of suspected learning dis-
order. Twenty-eight of the children were Caucasian and 16 were Afro-Amer-
ican. Fifteen of the children were learning disabled (eligible by state criteria
to receive public school services), eight were mildly mentally retarded (IQ
and adaptive behavior scores <70), and the other 21 had borderline or low-
average intelligence without specific learning disability. Each child was ad-
ministered the Test of Visual-motor Skills (Gardner, 1986), the Developmen-
tal Test of Visual-motor Integration (Beery, 1989), the Bender-Gestalt (Kop-
pitz, 1975), the WISC-R (Wechsler, 1974), and the Woodcock-Johnson Psy-
cho-Educational Battery, tests of achievement (Woodcock, 1977) on the same
day. The tests were administered in counterbalanced order by licensed psy-
chologists and supervised graduate students.
RESULTS
Standard scores were used in all analyses. Means and standard devia-
tions of all test scores are presented in Table 1. Scores on each visual-motor
coordination test correlated significantly (p < .01) with scores on all three ac-
ademic scales of the Woodcock-Johnson, with correlations ranging from .47
to .65. The first multiple regression analyses simply assessed visual-motor
TABLE 1
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF VISUAL-MOTOR, ACHIEVEMENT,
AND INTELLIGENCE TEST STANDARD SCORES

Test M SD
Test of Visual-motor Skills 70.5 13.0
Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration 79.0 12.5
Bender-Gestalt 77.1 18.2
Woodcock-Johnson Reading 81.1 10.9
Woodcock-Johnson Mathematics 80.6 11.1
Woodcock-Johnson Written Language 82.6 11.5
WISC-R Verbal IQ 84.9 11.8
WISC-R Performance IQ 86.9 13.6
WISC-R Full Scale IQ 84.9 12.2
 VISUAL-MOTOR COORDINATION AND INTELLIGENCE 821

scores as predictors of achievement. Because the range of ages of the sample

was wide, chronological age was also independently entered into the regres-
sion model. In looking at the predictive ability of the visual-motor test
scores in isolation from IQs, the Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integra-
tion and Test of Visual-motor Skills accounted for significant amounts of

TABLE 2
CORRELATIONS* AMONG VISUAL-MOTOR, ACHIEVEMENT, AND INTELLIGENCE TEST SCORES

Measure 9 8 5 6 7 4 3
1. Test of Visual-motor Skills
Woodcock-Johnson
2. Reading .52 .54 .47 .65 .52 .70 .85 .72
3. Mathematics .64 .62 .65 .79 .74 .72 .73
4. Written Language .49 .51 .55 .75 .60 .79
WISC-R
5. Verbal IQ .49 .57 .74 .89 .65
6. Performance IQ .47 .53 .55 .92
7. Full Scale IQ .52 .61 .71
8. Bender-Gestalt .59 .60
9. Developmental Test of
Visual-motor Integration .37
*p<.01.

unique variance in reading scores, 29% and 11.9%, respectively. For mathe-
matics, scores of each visual-motor test accounted for a significant amount of
unique variance. The Bender, Test of Visual-motor Skills, and Developmental
Test of Visual-motor Integration accounted for 42%, 9.9%, and 8%, respec-
tively. For written language, only the Bender accounted for a significant
amount of unique variance, 30.7%.
Adding WISC-R Verbal and Performance IQs to the stepwise regres-

TABLE 3
SUMMARY OF STEPWISE REGRESSION WITHOUT IQ

Woodcoc~ohnson Step Variable Partial Model F p

Sc e R2 R2
Reading 1 Developmental Test of
Visual-motor Integration .209 .209 11.20 .001
2 Test of Visual-motor Skills .290 .081 6.27 .01
Mathematics 1 Bender-Gestalt .368 .368 25.21 <.001
2 Test of Visual-motor Skills .452 .084 8.02 .005
3 Developmental Test of
Visual-motor Integration .524 .072 4.86 .01
Written Language 1 Bender-Gestalt .262 .262 15.32 .001
2 Developmental Test of
Visual-motor Integration .305 .043 2.81 .10
3 Test of Visual-motor Skills .3J7 .032 2.10 .15
822 D. J. GOLDSTEIN & T. W. BRITT, JR.

sion yielded Verbal IQ as the only variable entering into the prediction
model in reading scores (accounting for 53% of the variance) and written
language (accounting for 65% of the variance). For mathematics, Perform-
ance IQ entered first, accounting for 50% of variance. The Test of Visual-
motor Skills scores entered second, accounting for an additional 7.5% of the
variance in mathematics scores, a statistically significant contribution. No
other variables added significantly to the prediction equation.

TABLE 4
SUMMARY OF STEPWISE REGRESSION WITH IQs ADDED

Woodcoc:1e0hnson Step Variable Partial Model F p

Sc e R2 R2
Reading 1 Verbal IQ .532 .532 48.17 <.0001
2 Test of Visual-motor Skills .562 .030 3.84 .06
3 Bender-Gestalt .578 .016 2.02 .15
Mathematics 1 Performance IQ .503 .503 49.35 <.0001
2 Test of Visual-motor Skills .578 .075 4.93 .02
Written Language 1 VerbalIQ .651 .651 82.16 <.0001
2 Performance IQ .674 .023 1.59 .21

DISCUSSION
While scores on tests of visual-motor coordination correlated signifi-
cantly with achievement test scores and accounted for a statistically signif-
icant amount of variance in each academic area, they could not, with one
exception, account for unique achievement score variance independent of in-
telligence. These findings support previous research (Lesiak, 1984; McKay &
Neale, 1985; Wright & DeMers, 1982) which showed no relationship be-
tween visual-motor coordination and achievement. It seems likely that, at
least for similar samples of children with school failure, visual-motor test
scores may only predict achievement to the extent that they reflect g or gen-
eral cognitive ability. Investigators are urged to use caution when interpret-
ing the relationship between academic skills and components of intelligence
such as visual-motor ability.
On the other hand, the finding that the Test of Visual-motor Skills en-
tered the prediction model for mathematics when IQ was included supported
the findings of Vance, et al. (1986), Nielson and Sapp (1991), and Berninger,
et al. (1992). It should be emphasized, however, that of the three visual-
motor tests the only one which accounted for a significant amount of vari-
ance above IQ was the Test of Visual-motor Skills and that only accounted
for an additional 7.5% of variance in one academic area-mathematics. Addi-
tional work might explore this relationship further to examine whether it is
a robust finding in other samples.
 VISUAL-MOTOR COORDINATION AND INTELLIGENCE 823
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Accepted February 22, 1994.