Effect of age and gender on motor proficiency and visual motor integration as a measure of handwriting readiness

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Beden Eğitimi ve Spor Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2014

Öğrenci: YASEMİN HARMANCI BAŞKUT

Danışman: SADETTİN KİRAZCI

Özet:

The purpose of present study was to compare handwriting readiness of first grade students in public schools with regard to age and gender. Totally 87 students at the age of 61-72 months (n=48), and 73-84 months (n=39) participated in this study (43 girls, 44 boys). Turkish versions of Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP) and Turkish versions of Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI) were utilized orderly for each student. Also, each student participated in data collection procedure individual. Two 2x2 ANOVAs were conducted for motor proficiency and visual motor integration. For the motor proficiency, no significant difference in BOTMP scores was found between two age groups and gender groups. However, significant age effect was found in VMI scores while gender effect on VMI scores was not significant. In conclusion, children in old age group (73-84 months) have an advantage to handwriting readiness compared with their peers in young age group because they had better performance in visual motor integration. On the other hand, both female students and male students demonstrated similar levels in handwriting readiness in their age groups.