title: Relationship between the quality of children's handwriting and the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration after one year of writing tuition.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined whether the three subtests of the Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration predicted quality of handwriting across and within groups of boys and girls classified as proficient, at risk or non-proficient writers according to the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Beery Buktenica developmental test of visuomotor integration and the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting tests were administered to 240 grade 2 children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Proficient writers scored better on the visuomotor integration subtest than non-proficient writers, while proficient and at risk writers scored better than non-proficient writers on the motor coordination subtest. No differences were found on the visual perception subtest. Girls were more often classified as proficient writers than boys, and they scored better on the motor coordination subtest. Across groups, regression indicated that gender and both the visuomotor integration subtest and the motor coordination subtest were significant predictors for the quality of handwriting (i.e., accounted for 17% of the variance).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After one year of writing tuition, the visuomotor integration subtest (and to a lesser extent the motor coordination subtest) but not the visual perception subtest significant relates to quality of children's handwriting as measured with the Concise Assessment Scale for Children's Handwriting. However, the relatively little variance explained also points to other abilities and/or task constraints that underlie quality of handwriting.
authors.affiliation: Academy for Pediatric Physical Therapy, University of Applied Science, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ivonne H F
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Duiser
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Kamp
authors.forename: Annick
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ledebt
authors.forename: Geert J P
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Savelsbergh
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis