Visual-Motor Skills and Reading Ability of Deaf Children

Abstract

A battery of tests was administered to 59 deaf children with an age range of 8 to 12 yr. On the basis of performance IQ and reading level, 27 Ss were divided into three groups of 9 retarded readers with IQs below 90, 9 retarded readers with IQs above 90, and 9 non-retarded readers with IQs above 90. Statistical treatment of Ss' scores on the Bender-Gestalt, the Graham and Kendall Memory-for-Designs, and the Picture Completion, Picture Arrangement, Block Design, Object Assembly and Coding subtests of the WISC did not significantly differentiate between deaf retarded readers and non-retarded readers. However, the data show that deaf children's performance on visual-motor tasks, irrespective of their reading ability, is generally below that of their hearing peers.