The Effect of Motor Dependent/Independent Visual Perception Training on Visual-Motor Integration and Fine Motor Skills of 7-8-year-old Children: The Retest of Movement Hypothesis

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of motor dependent/independent visual perception training on visual-motor integration and fine motor skills of 7-8 year old children .For this purpose, 107,  1st grade  primary school students in Sabzevar were selected through purposive sampling (with equal economical and cultural status , optimum mental and physical health and full sight with or without wearing glasses) and randomly divided into two experimental (no=32)and a control group (no=43). After attending a pre-test session, one of the experimental groups was trained in movement dependent visual-perception tasks while the other group performed movement independent visual-perception tasks.  Both groups performed their tasks for three sessions, 45-minute per week and for six consecutive weeks. Shapiro-Wilk and Levin test results confirmed the normality and homogenity of data and ANCOVA showed that both training programs significantly improved visual-motor integration and fine motor skills of 7 to 8 years old children. However, Bonferroni test indicated that there were no significant differences between the movement dependent and independent training programs. The data analysis was performed by using SPSS 19.0. The results of this study confirmed the purposed "movement" hypothesis stating that the significant contributor to the development of perception and perceptual-motor components is not the active or passive movements of the individual, but rather it is the attention of the person to the visual stimuli within the environment.