A clarification of the role of perceptual-motor testing in the assessment of learning disabled children

Author investigated the commonly held theory that elementary school children with various types of learning disability often display problems with perceptual-motor tasks. The study included a number of perceptual-motor measures of a pure visual perceptual nature, a pure motor nature, and a measure of perceptual-motor integration (VMI-R) and used normative data to determine the level of performance of the LD children. No significant differences in the performance of the LD children and "normals" was found. Limitation of the study was the use of norms tables instead of a comparable group of normal children and some types of LD children were not represented (e.g., nonverbal disability wherein PIQ is clinically significantly lower than the VIQ as described by Byron Rourke et al out of Ottawa and for whom visual-perceptual problems are invariably encountered).