THE RELATIONSHIP OF SENSORY INTEGRATIVE DEVELOPMENT TO ACHIEVEMENT INELEMENTARY STUDENTS - 4-YEAR LONGITUDINAL PATTERNS

This longitudinal investigation evaluated the relationship of sensory integrative development to achievement. It was hypothesized that perce ptual abilities would be strongly related to achievement when particip ants were 6 to 8 years of age, but not 4 years later. Participants (32 school-identified learning handicapped children and 35 non-learning h andicapped children) were administered the Sensory Integration and Pra xis tests and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. As predicte d, sensory integrative factors were strongly related to arithmetic ach ievement at younger ages, and the strength 4 the association declined with age. The reverse pattern was found for reading: sensory integrati on was not significantly related to concurrent reading achievement at younger ages, but was related to Inter reading. An unexpected finding was the strength of the relationship of the sensory integrative factor s, particularly Praxis, to arithmetic achievement.