Visual-motor status of Grade 1 learners in the North-West Province of South Africa : NW-child study

The aims of this study were firstly, to determine whether gender differences influence visual-motor status and secondly, if visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor coordination of Grade 1 learners correlate in the North-West Province of South Africa. A cross-sectional design was used. The subjects consisted of 816 (419 boys and 397 girls) Grade 1 learners with a mean age of 6.78 years. The Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration (4 th ed.) was used to evaluate the children’s visual-motor integration, visual perception and motor coordination. The results indicate that there were no statistically significant differences between the boys and the girls regarding visual-motor integration, visual perception or motor coordination. In addition, the results indicated that most of the learners experienced problems with visual perception, with 33% classed as below average and 26% as far below average. There was a correlation between gender and visual-motor integration. Correlations with moderate practical significance were found between visual-motor integration and visual perception (r=0.36; r=0.35), visual-motor integration and motor coordination (r=0.41), and visual perception and motor coordination (r=0.37; r=0.41 and r=0.39) for the boys, girls and the whole group separately. Keywords: Visual-motor integration; Visual perception; Motor coordination; Motor development; Gender South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation , 2013, 35(2): 37-50