The identification of the learning disabled child through the use of the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test as a measure of visual memory.
Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to develop better utilization of the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BVMGT) as a diagnostic tool for the identification of the learning disabled (LD) child. It was used as a test of visual memory. Most of the research which has used the BVMGT to investigate visual memory has been restricted to adults. The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Copy (BVMGTC), the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Recall (BVMGTR), and the Memory-For-Designs test (MFDT) were individually administered under uniform testing conditions. The BVMGTC and BVMGTR were scored accoding to Koppitz' Developmental Bender Test Scoring System (DBTSS). The MFDT protocols were scored according to the Graham and Kendall scoring system. Statistical analysis of the hypotheses did not reveal any significant findings. The LD and NLD groups were found to be equivalent on the BVMGTC and BVMGTR tasks. The MFDT, the BVMGTC, and the BVMGTR were unable to discriminate between the LD and NLD child to a greater degree than the placement team criteria. The general design of the study was a linear sequencing of testing alternative hypotheses. All tests of significance were at the .05 level. The primary purpose of the BVMGT is not to measure recall but to measure visual motor development. The Memory-For-Designs Test (MFDT), which is a test of visual recall and does discriminate between the LD and non-learning disabled (NLD) child, was correlated with the BVMGT. The study was concerned with five primary questions: (1) Does the Memory-For-Designs Test discriminate between the learning disabled and non-learning disabled child? (2) What is the relationship of (a) the Memory-For-Designs Test to the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Copy, (b) the Memory-For-Designs Test to the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Recall? (3) Does the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Copy or the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Recall have the strongest relationship with the Memory-For-Designs Test? (4) Is there a relationship between the learning disabled children placed by the placement team and those identified as learning disabled by the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Recall? (5) Will more children be identified as learning disabled by the placement team or by the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test Copy? Several recommendations for future research were made: (a) what type of memory does the BVMGTR measure; (b) development of stratified means and standard deviations for the BVMGTR; and (c) more research needs to be conducted using the BVMGTR with children as subjects. The population utilized in this study were 64 randomly selected subjects from the total number of students who had been referred for evaluation because of academic problems. Students whose suspected primary difficulty was mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or other handicapping conditions were eliminated. Subjects ranged in age from 8.5 to 11.11 years.
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