Comparison of the relationship between two measures of visual-motor coordination and academic achievement

Scores from Koppitz' scoring system for the Bender-Gestalt and Beery's Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration for a group of 86 elementary students referred for psychoeducational evaluation were correlated with Wide Range Achievement Test scores, controlling for WISC-R IQ. Although zero-order correlations of the visual-motor measures with achievement were of moderate magnitude (.33 to.48) and were all statistically significant (p<.01), first-order partial correlations were of lower magnitude (.13 to.22) and half failed to reach statistical significance (p>.05). It was suggested that visual-motor ability may not offer a unique contribution to the prediction of achievement.