Abstract
Three raters using the Koppitz developmental scoring system assessed the Bender protocols of 200 6-yr.-olds as part of a wider ranging longitudinal study. Results indicated that over-all interrater reliability was high (Mr = .92) but considerable variation occurred when individual error items were analyzed, ranging from 71% agreement when Figure A, ‘distortion’ of shape was involved, to 94% agreement for ‘rotations’ of Figure 1. Full agreement was not achieved for any scoring item. A record form for scoring errors was developed and used by the authors as an aid in scoring and as a means of reducing inconsistency in marking. Analysis of item difficulty established that children at this age have more frequent problems with some types of error, and ‘angulation’ errors in particular could be regarded as fairly typical of the grapho-motor skills of this age group, while errors of integration, distortion, and substitution constituted the best discriminating types of error. Investigation of the relationship between the major categories of error and development of perceptual motor skills, expressed in early school performance, is needed.
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