The Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration(Beery VMI)

Beery VMI

•Is a developmental sequence of geometric forms to be copied with paper and pencil

•To help identify, through early screening, children who may need special assistance, to obtain needed services to them, to test the effectiveness of educational and other intervention and to advance research

• It is designed to assess the extent to which individuals can integrate their visual and motor abilities (eye-hand coordination)

Beery VMI

• Is virtually culture free

•Because children from different background often have widely varying degrees of experience with alphabets and numbers

•Uses geometric forms

Beery VMI

From amoebas to humans and from infants to

adults, successful development is characterized by

increasing articulation of the parts with wholes.

•An operating assumption that is based on Sherrington’s work in biology and the work of others in various fields, including the social sciences

Beery VMIFrom amoebas to humans and from infants toadults, successful development is characterized byincreasing articulation of the parts with wholes.

• Ideally, a test of visual-motor integration will help some children move forward toward more fully integrating all of their physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual parts with the whole of their selves and others

Visual-Motor Development

•From amoebas to humans, the nervous system seems to have progressed toward improved interaction among sensory and expressive modalities

Phyletic(interspecies)

• In adult humans, sensory and expressive modalities are usually well connected and coordinated, or integrated

Visual-Motor Development

Ontogenetic(humanspecies)• Visual-motor may be the first

sensory-response integration to develop

• Kephart emphasized the importance of integration• He noted children have well developed visual and

motor skills but be unable to integrate the two.• Vereeken reported that, to copy form with a pencil,

a child must first be visually aware of the location and direction.

• This awareness is made possible through voluntary eye movement

Visual-Motor Development

Ontogenetic(humanspecies)•Children can scribble

vertical, horizontal, and circular lines before being able to imitate

• Imitation is probably achieved before direct copying of these same forms

• Scribbling requires little or no eye-hand coordination

• In imitation, eye movements are rehearsed while the task is being demonstrated

It is important to recognize that development may not always be smooth.

Often, progress is in spurts and may even involve temporary regressions

Beery VMI

•Is designed to measure a hyphen in the term visual-motor integration on the premise:

The whole is greater is greater than the sum of its parts.

Parts may function well independently but not in combination

The End.Prepared by: Jeel Christine de Egurrolajeelchristine@i.ph