Influence of Training in Visual Perceptual Discrimination on Drawings by Children

This study attempted to determine empirically the influence of visual perceptual remediation on drawing utilizing educationally handicapped children of elementary age as subjects. The 34 girls and 78 boys were of average intelligence, with one-half of the subjects evidencing measured visual perceptual dysfunction. In each experimental group, 14 visual perceptually impaired (learning disabled) and 14 non-perceptually impaired (learning disordered) children received instruction on one of three commercially available visual perceptual remedial materials. Controls (28 subjects) received no special training. Prior to the training, subjects' drawings were collected, as well as after the 12-wk. intervention period by five graduate students in art education. The analysis of variance used to determine the effects of the intervention program on seven specified descriptors of drawing behavior yielded only one statistically significant descriptor, “Non-awareness of Social Situations and Self vs Awareness of Social Situation and Self.” There were no differences between the perceptually impaired and non-impaired subject groups on any of the drawing tasks.

Field Dependence in Visually and Nonvisually Involved Learning Disabled Children

39 visually and nonvisually perceptually impaired 8- to 11-yr.-old boys with learning disabilities were compared with a control group of 35 “normal” learners on the Rod-and-frame and Children's Embedded-figures Tests. Previous findings of greater field dependence of learning disabled children are confounded because the experimental tasks involved visual perception. In our study the 27 “visuals” were more field-dependent than either the 12 “nonvisuals” or the controls. The latter groups did not differ significantly from one another, which may in part be a function of the small sample of nonvisual children identified. Alternative explanations, e.g., the visual nature of the field-dependence measures and the lack of reading difficulty of the nonvisual group, are considered. For the visually disabled Ss only Vocabulary scores correlate significantly with Rod-and-frame and Embedded-figures scores, suggesting that among such children those with higher verbal intelligence may be more field-independent.