Effect of a Gross Motor Developmental Program on form Perception Skills of Educable Mentally Retarded Children

Abstract

Seven perceptual forms of the Winter Haven Perceptual Forms Test (PFT) were administered to 20 educable mentally retarded children (EMR) before and after participating in a 15-week physical developmental program, and to 12 EMR children not enrolled in the developmental program. All subjects were students at the Austin State School Annex, Austin, Texas. A comparison of pre- and post-program test performance of the participating children, compared to the performance of the control children indicated that (a) gross motor developmental programs do not improve performance on the PFT, (b) experimental and control subjects improved on only three items of the PFT, and (c) the PFT is reliable and may be used successfully with the educable mentally retarded children.