WRAVMA - Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities

Screening Procedures

There are 3 screening procedures that are included in this assessment.

1.) Drawing activity

2.) Matching activity

3.) Peg board activity

Drawing Activity Instructions & Scoring

Peg Board Activity Instructions & Scoring

Type of Assessment

• The starting point of the assessment will be determined by the child's age. Ages are grouped by half years from ages 3 to 12, and grouped by whole years from 12 to 17.
• The assessment instructions provide a script for the examiner. The examiner will tell the child that they are going to do a drawing activity. Many of the assessment items are pictures that need to be completed. As the assessment gets more difficult, there are images that the child is supposed to replicate. For the younger ages, the examiner will draw the first line/item to complete the picture, and then tell the child to try. The examiner may not gesture when telling the child to complete the picture, but may only point to the item.
• There are specific criteria listed for each item that the child's drawing must meet in order to be counted as correct. The child gets one point for each item that is completed correctly.
• The assessment ends when a child has missed three items.

• The peg board activity assesses left and right fine motor skills separately.
• The examiner begins by placing a small number of pegs on the board. He/she then instructs the child that it is their turn to put the same number of pegs in the board.
• The examiner will instruct the child that the first hand will do all the work, and the second hand will rest. Then, the second hand will do the work and the first hand will rest. The examiner should touch the child's hands as she gives directions.
• If a child has a tendency to seek out only one color peg, remind the child "Use all of the colors."
• The child is encouraged to place the hand they are not using in their lap.
• After assessing the child as he/she places a small number of pegs in the board at a time, the child will complete a timed assessment. The examiner will time the child for 90 seconds to see how many pegs he/she can place with his/her right hand. The examiner will write that number down. The child will then complete the activity using his/her right hand, and the examiner will write that number down as well.

Matching Activity Instructions & Scoring

• Just like with the drawing activity, the starting point of the matching assessment will be determined by the child's age. Ages are grouped by half years from ages 3 to 12, and grouped by whole years from 12 to 17.
• Again, the examiner has a script that he/she is to read to the child while completing the assessment. The examiner will tell the child that he/she is going to do some matching activities. The examiner will point to the initial item, and the options listed below the initial item, and ask the child which one from that bottom group matches the top item. The examiner is not to give any hints to the child.
• When the child correctly finds a match, he/she receives one point.
• The assessment ends when a child has missed three items.

• Norm-based: 2,282 children from ages 3-17 were chosen with control in regard to gender, ethnicity, regional residence, and SES. When a child is tested with the WRAVMA assessment, his/her scores are compared with the normative sample.
• Criterion-Referenced: There are set activities that a child is expected to complete, and the child is scored with very specific criteria. The primary focus is skill acquisition.

Assessment Rating

3

Acceptability

This assessment is ethically sound, and could easily be accepted by parents, professionals, etc. It does not ask anything out of the ordinary from the child, and does not criticize the child in any way, but rather focuses on the abilities/skills that the child has developed.

1

Authenticity

3

Sensitivity

The clinical examiner continues administering the drawing and matching items on the assessment until the child has failed three times. As the assessment is repeated multiple times, the examiner will be able to see if the child gets farther each time, and also which attempts he/she has satisfied or failed. Since they are given an overall score, this score could change each and every time the test is administered to detect a child's progress. A rating scale is not used.

This is a standardized assessment, and does not assess the child in his/her natural environment. A clinical examiner must administer this test, so it is likely not someone that the child is already familiar with. It may not yield accurate results, given that the child is taken out of their natural environment and away from primary caregivers and adults that he/she knows.

2

Utility

3

Convergence

1

Equity

Visual motor abilities have been shown to have a direct correlation with reading and writing abilities. While this test could potentially help teachers to plan differentiated instruction based on their students' varied abilities, it does not necessarily link results directly to any curriculum.

No accommodations are made for children with limitations. There is a script that the clinical examiner follows, which does not allow for children who may need additional assistance or varied testing methods.

There were 74 clinical examiners who participated in gathering data for this assessment. There was also a sample of 2,282 children taken from across the country, and assessed over a period of three years. This demonstrates a variety of data from multiple sources, which is how to achieve a score of three in convergence.

1

2

Congruence

Collaboration

A score of one was assigned for congruence because this assessment was not designed, nor field tested, for children with disabilities. It is a standardized test to be administered, and does not account for a child who may have a physical fine-motor disability and would be unable to complete this test.

A child is referred to take this assessment by either a teacher or other professional, and it is then administered by a clinical examiner. This makes the WRAVMA interdisciplinary, but not trans-disciplinary. In order to be rated a three, parents and a variety of other professionals would need to be involved in the assessment process as well.

Rating Scale

Is this a good

assessment?

Overview

While this assessment is useful in a clinical setting, it is not designed for use in a child's natural environment. The assessment may lose reliability due to the fact that a child may not give the same results in a clinical setting as they would in their everyday environment.

(CIRCLE THE NUMBER THAT APPLIES TO EACH STANDARD)

(LOW) (AVERAGE) (HIGH)

ACCEPTABILITY 1 2 3

AUTHENTIC 1 2 3

CONGRUENT 1 2 3

CONVERGENT 1 2 3

COLLABORATIVE 1 2 3

EQUITABLE 1 2 3

SENSITIVE 1 2 3

UTILITY 1 2 3

TOTAL: 3/8 + 4/16 + 9/24 = 16/48

TOTAL SCORE: 16 ÷ 8 = 2

TOTAL RATING: 2

RANK: Low

Exemplary: 6.0

High: 4.5

Acceptable: 3.0

Low: 2.0

Unacceptable: 1.0

• WRAVMA: Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities

• Publisher: Wide Range, Inc.

• Date of Publication: 1995

• Authors: Wayne Adams and David Sheslow

Results will ultimately only show that the child did not, and not that the child can not.

Who and Why?

• Appropriate age range: 3 years - 17 years
• The purpose of this assessment is to measure visual motor abilities, and compare a child's abilities to the normative sample. It is used for screening/diagnosis.
• Copying, writing, drawing, and fine motor abilities have a perceived interconnection with reading and writing, so difficulty in these areas could potentially be linked to a developmental delay or learning disability.
• A child who is not reaching developmental milestones in these areas may be tested.

Strengths Vs. Weaknesses

Strengths

Sensitivity is the greatest strength of this assessment. Since the child is given an overall score, and not scored on a rating scale, it has the ability to detect even the smallest amounts of progress.

Weaknesses

The greatest weakness is that the test must be administered by a clinical examiner, and the child has to be taken out of his/her natural environment. All authenticity is lost in this process.

WRAVMA - Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities

Amanda Blakley & Alyssa McKinnon