Visuospatial difficulties and clumsiness: on the interpretation of conjoined deficits.
Sixteen children with motor difficulties and 16 controls, matched on age, gender and verbal I.Q., were assessed on the Test Of Motor Impairment, various graphic tasks and a measure of visuospatial discrimination. Poor perceptual and motor performance tended to co-occur but contrary to the visuospatial deficit account of clumsiness these abilities were uncorrelated even when attention was restricted to the less proficient children. There was no tendency for the control group's superiority in graphic reproduction to diminish when visual feedback was withheld. Some suggestions are offered concerning more appropriate methods for framing and testing causal deficit hypotheses.
Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, University of London, U.K.
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SE
Henderson
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Barnett
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Henderson
D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007699:Kinesthesis; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014888:Wechsler Scales