So far, this series has addressed the following components of a Psychoeducational assessment:
1) Background History
2) Testing Observations
3) Intelligence/Cognition
In this post, the psychological process of “Visual-Motor Integration” will be addressed. Loosely defined, visual-motor integration is eye-hand coordination, and is required for tasks such as writing and copying material, handwriting/cursive, pencil-paper tasks, copying from the board, and drawing. As the name suggests, the student can have difficulties with the visual aspect, the motor aspect, or integrating/coordinating the two together. Often students with such deficits can have even more difficulties when the task is timed (sometimes, this will be called “Processing Speed” on intelligence tests, but that can be a general term as one can slowly process auditory information too.)
Students with visual motor integration difficulties are often impaired in their ability to keep up with written work. It would be like using your non-dominant hand to write. You can do it, but it is mentally taxing. If you want to simulate this, go ahead and write left-handed all day (if you’re a righty). Also, get someone to hover over you and ask if you’re done yet and encourage you to hurry up because everyone else is moving on. Let me know how that goes!*
I am reminded of a student I worked with who was 13 at the time, and “refused” to do any written work. Upon testing him, he had a severe visual-motor integration deficit, despite above average intelligence. He couldn’t even copy a triangle, let alone take notes from the board with speed and accuracy. I can see why he refused to work. It’s better to look bad than dumb when you are 13.
I was presenting the results of this student's testing to the parent, school staff, and an outside therapist (the student had some emotional difficulties related to his poor achievement as well) and as I like to do, I showed them the picture of the triangle he was supposed to copy and then what he produced. His triangle was like a rectangle with one side missing, so the triangle would never connect if he continued the lines. The therapist gasped and said, “Oh my, it’s so phallic! Look what he drew. He took the triangle and made it phallic. Very disturbing.” And she went on and on with a psychoanalytic interpretation.
What was actually disturbing was that she missed the entire point. He had visual-motor integration issues and was trying to copy the triangle picture that the test developers made up. She will have to take up the obscene triangle stimulus with PsychCorp. In my head, I imagined them saying to her, “Lady, sometimes a triangle is just a triangle.”
*Most teachers, once they find out the student has a visual-motor integration deficit, will accommodate such that the student gets more time to complete written work, or the task demand is reduced for quality, not quantity. Teaching computer skills is also a good compensatory bypass strategy.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Visual-Motor Integration (Psychoeducational Part IV)
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5 comments:
Thank you so much for this: sometimes a triangle is just a triangle!
Sometimes a child with a visual-motor processing deficit hides under his desk because he is tired of being humiliated in front of his class when he is at the blackboard. Sometimes a child talks to himself because a parent has told him that self-talk is a good strategy when you're having trouble at school. Sometimes a child who wears camouflage pants to school is just following the latest fashion trend, and is not "obsessed with war".
Sometimes, just sometimes, adults over-analyse things. Sometimes adults are wrong. Imagine that!
Thank you very much for this insightful article. I am a special education teacher. My son, who is very intelligent, is in second grade. He had some problems last year with copying from the board and actually finishing the sork. This school year, we found that he was failing timed math fact tests. He could tell me the answers very quickly, but was unable to get more than 50% finished on the test. I had him tested at an outside agency because I thought that the whole problem was his handwriting (very messy and slow). It was found that he has above average visual perceptual skills, average motor skills and below average visual motor integration skills. We are going to therapy once per week to help. However, his teacher is not implementing the accommodations that have been recommended. I know that since he does not have an actual "learning disability" as defined by Alabama, she does not need to follow these recommendations, but I would think that she would. My question is: Should I choose my son's teacher for next year to ensure someone who would accommodate him, or should I let it to chance (again) and have him just deal with what life has handed to him?
Thank you!
Without knowing all the details of how things work in Alabama, I would say that you should try to find a teacher who is psychologically-minded for next year. Any time a teacher understands kids and learning differences, the kids benefit. You are doing the right thing by addressing the issue on your own in therapy.
That being said, if things get worse for your son and he is really struggling, I think you should also look into whether or not your son may qualify for a Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act Plan (a federal civil rights law). It is sometimes used when kids don't meet criteria under IDEA, but still have a disabling condition that limits a major life function (in this case, learning). It functions, in many ways, like an IEP, in that it is a written plan of action to make sure your son has equal access to the curriculum and details accommodations that may be appropriate.
Best of luck to you--R
We just had the evaulation meeting for my 1st grade son. We had asked for the evaluation as his handwriting is very messy (to the point of being illegible) and trying to get him to do any kind of written work at home is a constant battle. He did get OT in kindergarten, but they don't do it in 1st grade or higher without the IEP. At school he'll do the bare minimum for written work and will add more details if the teacher prompts, but tries to get it over with as soon as possible. There's a huge focus on the kids being authors, but he'll just write one sentence on each page of his books because writing is so tough for him. He scored poor/below average on VMI. My son is excelling in reading and math, so it's tough to argue that there is an educational impact since he's not failing. Luckily for him, his teacher, the OT and the SPED teacher all agreed that his VMI problems are impacting his ability to do the work that needs to be done -- we were told he was "borderline" to get services at school as he does do so well in the academic subjects. He'll be getting two 30 minute OT sessions per 6-day rotation starting next fall. We're so glad we finally got through the evaluation process, but wish that this year hadn't been wasted. Teachers aren't supposed to tell parents they can request an evaluation, but the OT he worked with last year told me what I needed to do to get the evaluation, etc.
It's unfortunate the way the process is set up, isn't it? Let's wait until he fails enough to be in need of an IEP! So frustrating.
I'm glad he's getting the help he needs though. You are right that there are so many expectations on kids to be writers at a younger and younger age.
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