Hf. Mao et al., Construct validity of Beery's developmental test of visual-motor integration for taiwanese children, OCCUP THER, 19(4), 1999, pp. 241-257
The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of Beery's
Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI test) and its hierarchi
cal structure of item difficulties for Taiwanese children. The VMI test was
administered to 314 Taiwanese children aged from 3.3 to 13.3 years. The Ra
sch model 4 measurement was chosen to investigate the goodness-of-fit of in
dividual items within the VMI test and the sequence of item difficulty. The
results revealed that the 24 items 4 the VMI test measure a unidimensional
construct. The difficulty levels 4 the items were spread widely and evenly
across the age range tested. A person separation reliability of .92 and an
item separation reliability of .99 indicated that the VMI test had good di
scriminatory power. However, the different sequence of item difficulty prel
iminarily found in this study indicates that the item order or the scoring
criteria should be revised for Taiwanese children. Further studies of the s
tandardization and validity of the VMI test and revision of the sequence fo
r the Taiwanese population are necessary.