Date Presented 04/06/19
This study analyzed the VMI tasks according to theories of neuropsychology, from which we created a new scoring system. The models of cognitive development together with psychological constructs of figurative (direct perception) and operative (analysis and action) schemes provided the format for evaluating a child’s productions. VMI records of 39 children were scored using the new detailed system. Regression analysis found that the new scoring, and not the VMI, significantly predicted age.
Primary Author and Speaker: Carol Cote
Additional Authors and Speakers: Carol Reinson
PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND: The VMI (Beery, 2013) is widely used as an assessment in occupational therapy with children. Although it has been found to have sound psychometrics, its theoretical foundation has been questioned (Poteat, 2014). Another concern among therapists is that the pass/fail scoring provides little information on the nature of difficulties. This study aimed to analyze the figure drawings of the VMI in terms of current theories of neuropsychology and use that understanding to create a different scoring system. The models of cognitive development, particularly the functions of the ventral and dorsal streams in the brain (Stiles et al., 2013), interfaces with neo-Piagetian psychological constructs of ‘figurative’ (direct perception) and ‘operative’ (analysis and planning actions) schemes (Morra, 2005) to provide a format for evaluating a child’s productions.
METHODS: This descriptive study used the VMI test booklets of 39 typically developing children, ages 6 to 10 years, from a previous study (de-identified for this purpose). A new scoring method was devised which identifies five figurative features and five operative features, with a point assigned for each correct feature. Easier items have fewer features to judge, the most difficult has 10 possible points. All the test booklets were re-scored using this new method. The new scoring criteria was closely aligned with the published VMI criteria, but differed in assigning part credit for correctly produced features.
ANALYSES AND RESULTS: The new scoring was strongly correlated with VMI raw scores (VMI and figurative subtotal: r = .81; VMI and operative subtotal: r = .74). A linear regression analysis found that the new scoring, figurative and operative combined, was a significant predictor of age (p = .005) and the VMI raw score did not significantly add to prediction of age (p = .089).
CONCLUSION: While this new scoring method is not intended to replace the standardized scoring of the VMI, it provides support for the theoretical models from which the figurative and operative features were derived in that they correlated with the VMI, showing that they are measuring similar constructs; and the new score more strongly predicted age, supporting validity for the detailed, theory-based scoring. Further work is underway to re-score tests from children with known deficits in the area of visual-motor integration to investigate the relative contribution to errors of the figurative and operative schemes to ability.
IMPACT STATEMENT: Therapists working in the area of pediatrics/school-based practice can benefit from understanding the neuropsychological developmental processes involved in a child’s ability to recreate complex figures; a detailed scoring of the VMI provides an opportunity to assess this ability.
References
Poteat, M. G. (2014). Review of The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, Sixth Edition. In J. F. Carlson, K. F. Geisinger, & J. L. Jonson (Eds.), The nineteenth mental measurements yearbook. 2014.
Stiles, J., Akshoomoff, N., & Haist, F. (2013). The development of visuospatial processing. In J. L. R. Rubenstein & P. Rakic (Eds.), Neural circuit development and function in the healthy and diseased brain (Vol. 3, pp. 271-296). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Morra, S. (2005). Cognitive Aspects of Change in Drawings: A Neo-Piagetian Theoretical Account. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 317-341.
Beery, K. E., Beery, N. A., & Buktenica, N. A. (2010). The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration, Sixth Edition. San Antonio: Pearson.
