Prediction of first grade school achievement with the Bender Gestalt test and human figure drawings
✍ Scribed by Elizabeth M. Koppitz; John Sullivan; David D. Blyth; Joel Shelton
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1959
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 401 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0021-9762
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
PROBLEM
Learning problems in young children are frequently not fully recognized until the second or third grade or even later. By that time the child, the parents and the teacher tend to be quite frustrated and the emotional problems developing out of the situation tend to intensify the difficulties. If school achievement could be predicted at the time of school entrance then special consideration could be given to youngsters with potential learning problems and many later frustrations avoided.
Earlier studies(3* 4, have shown that school achievement in the first grade is closely related to visual-motor coordination and perception as measured on the Bender Gestalt Test ( l ) . However, school achievement depends also on a number of other variables such as intelligence, motivation for learning, emotional adjustment, home environment and socio-economic status. Good prediction of school success must take as many of these factors into account as possible( ). The Human Figure Drawing Test has been found to be quite sensitive t o many of these factors and could therefore also be a good indicator of school achievement. This study tested the hypothesis that the Bender Gestalt Test and Human Figure Drawings together can predict first grade school achievement. If this hypothesis is valid then the Bender and Drawings could be used as screening instruments at the beginning of the school year for the detection of potential learning problems.