Abstract:
This study evolved because of the researcher’s need to inquire whether visualmotor
integration and fine motor coordination contribute to a child’s readiness to
acquire handwriting skills. As school-going age is a controversial topic in the South-
African context, the researcher set out to compare the readiness to acquire
handwriting skills between two groups of Grade 1 children. This study was developed to determine whether a relationship existed between
visual-motor integration and fine motor coordination as part of handwriting
readiness, and acquiring handwriting skills in two age groups namely five-year-old
children and six-year-old children. Initially the characteristics of the two age groups
were determined. This was followed by establishing the level of development for
visual-motor integration, fine motor coordination and handwriting skills in both age
groups as well as comparing the levels of development. The abovementioned was
obtained through the Miller Function and Participation Scales en the Minnesota
Handwriting Assessment. Lastly, the scores for visual-motor integration and fine
motor integration were correlated to the six categories of the Minnesota
Handwriting Assessment.
Both age groups presented with overall age appropriate abilities in visual-motor
integration and fine motor coordination. The six-year-old group did better on all six
of the categories for handwriting in the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment when
compared to the five-year-old group. There was a significant difference (p=0.0049)
between the visual-motor integration scores between the two age groups. No
significant difference between the two age groups was recorded in fine motor
coordination.
A significant negative correlation was detected between visual-motor integration
and the categories of legibility (r=-0.4029), form (r=-0.4300), size (r=-0.4087) and
spacing (r=-0.3832) in the five-year-old group. The six-year-old group presented
with a strong negative correlation between visual-motor integration and the
category of rate (r=-0.3930). When correlating the fine motor coordination score with the categories of the
Minnesota Handwriting Assessment, a strong negative correlation was detected
with the categories of legibility (r=-0.3850) and spacing (r=-0.4697) in the five-yearold
group. The six-year-old group did not present with significant correlations
between fine motor coordination and the six categories of the Minnesota
Handwriting Assessment.
This study confirmed that a relationship exists between visual-motor integration,
fine motor integration and handwriting skills. This relationship was not always clear
and was influenced by different aspects such as age, maturity as well as the
assessment instruments used.
This study focused on only one district in Tshwane, which limited the data. The two
age groups in this study were not matched for gender, ethnicity and handedness.
