Development of an Age Band on the ManuVis for 3-Year-Old Children with Visual Impairments

ABSTRACT

Aim: To compare fine motor performance of 3-year-old children with visual impairment with peers having normal vision, to provide reference scores for 3-year-old children with visual impairment on the ManuVis, and to assess inter-rater reliability. Method: 26 children with visual impairment (mean age: 3 years 7 months (SD 3 months); 17 boys) and 28 children with normal vision (mean age: 3 years 7 months (SD 4 months); 14 boys) participated in the study. The ManuVis age band for 3-year-old children comprised two one-handed tasks, two two-handed tasks, and a pre-writing task. Results: Children with visual impairment needed more time on all tasks (p < .01) and performed the pre-writing task less accurately than children with normal vision (p < .001). Children aged 42–47 months performed significantly faster on two tasks and had better total scores than children aged 36–41 months (p < .05). Inter-rater reliability was excellent (Intra-class Correlation Coefficient = 0.96–0.99). Conclusions: The ManuVis age band for 3-year-old children is appropriate to assess fine motor skills, and is sensitive to differences between children with visual impairment and normal vision and between half-year age groups. Reference scores are provided for 3-year-old children with visual impairment to identify delayed fine motor development.

KEYWORDS. :

• Children
• fine motor skills
• ManuVis
• motor development
• pre-writing skills
• visual impairment

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank the children and parents who participated in this project for their considerable efforts. We also thank the institutes Bartiméus and Visio, and in particular our colleagues Janne van Essen (JE), Annemieke Gerrits (AG), Marina Goedhart (MG), Karlijn Oude Wolbers (KO), Joyce Schurink (JS), and Jan Jaap Slobbe for their support.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

FUNDING

This research was financially and organizationally supported by a grant of the Vereniging Bartiméus-Sonneheerdt (5781201) to J. J. Slobbe and R. F. A. Cox.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

A. M. Reimer is affiliated with Bartiméus Institute for the Visually Impaired, Zeist, The Netherlands and the Department of Rehabilitation, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, IQ Healthcare, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A. D. Barsingerhorn is affiliated with the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A. Overvelde and M. W. G. Nijhuis-Van der Sanden are affiliated with the Department of Rehabilitation, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, IQ Healthcare, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. F. N. Boonstra is affiliated with Bartiméus Institute for the Visually Impaired, Zeist, The Netherlands and the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Center, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. R. F. A. Cox is affiliated with the Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.