The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI) – Fifth Edition
Authors: Keith E. Beery, PhD and Natasha A. Beery, MA
PURPOSE:
The Beery VMI is designed to assess an individual’s ability to integrate their visual
and motor abilities. The purpose of this assessment is to help identify, through early
screening, significant difficulties that some children have integrating, or coordinating,
their visual-perceptual and motor (finger and hand movement) abilities. This
assessment can help identify children who may need special assistance, to obtain
needed services for them, to test the effectiveness of educational and other
interventions, and to advance research. This test is specifically called the Beery
VMI, to avoid confusion with other assessment VMI acronyms.
POPULATION:
The 30-item Beery VMI full-form can be administered to individuals or groups from
ages two through 18. The 21-item short form is available for ages two through
seven.
TEST MATERIAL:
The Beery VMI Test Materials include:
➢ Beery VMI Administration, Scoring and Teaching Manual
➢ Beery VMI 30-Item Full-Form Test Form
➢ Beery VMI Visual Perception Test Form
➢ Beery VMI Motor Coordination Test Form
➢ As a school age program, we are no longer ordering the short-form to prevent
confusion
➢ Protractor as needed for scoring
➢ Stopwatch or time-piece with a second hand for supplemental tests
➢ Ideally, a No. 2 pencil with no eraser or a ballpoint pen should be used to
prevent erasures
TIME TO ADMIN:
The Beery VMI full-form requires approximately 10 -15 minutes to administer. The
short form requires approximately less than 10 minutes to administer. However, it
may take longer to administer depending on the following; age of the child, degree of
difficulty experienced or the experience of the examiner. The Beery VMI can be
administered in group form or individual. It is recommended that the supplemental
tests be administered in individual testing for those who score below the average
range on the Beery VMI.
TEST COMPONENTS: Beery VMI Full-Form and two supplemental tests (Visual Perception and Motor
Coordination). Additional Stepping Stones observation are useful but are not used
for scoring purposes.
ADMINSTRATION:
The Beery VMI is always administered first. Either one or both of the standardized
supplemental tests may be administered as needed after the Beery VMI. If all three
tests are administered, they should be administered in the order that they were
normed: (1) Beery VMI, (2) Visual Perception and then (3) Motor Coordination. This
assessment can be administered and scored by almost any “intelligent adult” who is
thoroughly familiar with the test materials and has had supervised practiced with an
experienced examiner. Interpretation of the test results require the educational
background and experience of specialists in psychology, learning disabilities or
similar professions. See the manual for full group or individual administration
instructions.
Beery VMI Full-Form: Please see the manual for instructions when administering to
a child under the functional age of five. For children at or over the functional age
of five, start with task 7 (copying vertical line). If they are not able to copy the line,
follow the instructions in the manual for children under functional age of 5 (imitation
of vertical line, scribbling, etc.). Do NOT trace the line with your finger or allow the
child to do the same because such motions provide important cues. Avoid calling the
form by its name or by a descriptive term. As many times as necessary, prompt by
pointing to an item and saying: Make one like this.
Allow only one try per task, with no erasing. Allow only single line strokes, not
thickened or hollow “lines” to emulate the thick lines of the printed forms. Score one
point for each correctly formed figure (see manual for criteria). Stop scoring after
three consecutive errors. Credit all untested points prior to the child’s first success
(i.e. for tasks 1-6), up to a total of 30 possible raw score points. Look at each
production as a whole in the context of the scoring criteria and examples. If it seems
too close to call, give it a passing score.
Note* Form 18 has a passing criteria that allows for floating points of no more than
1/16th of an inch if the reproduction is otherwise good and the child succeeds on
each of the next three forms.
Testing the Limits (to informally assess possible causes for a child’s poor visual
motor integration performance and/or a child’s potential for learning such skills):
o
After the Beery VMI has been administered, return to the first item on which
the child did not meet the scoring criteria. Ask the child to look at the
stimulus and then at his/her copy. Ask: Does the form you drew look like the
same one as you just copied? (pause for answer) How is it different? Note
whether or not the child perceives any differences that exist.
o
Ask the child to trace the form with his/her pencil.
o
Ask the child to copy the stimulus form on blank sheet of paper. Note if the
copy improves.
o
If the second try did not improve, demonstrate how to draw the form. Have
the child copy it again.
o
If no improvement is noted, guide the child’s hand and pencil while copying
the form.
o
If no significant improvement noted, therapist recopies form while
verbalizing starting points, directions, and key spatial relations. Ask child to
recopy.
o
If still no significant improvement, have the child verbalize directions while
you draw it. Then have the child copy while verbalizing directions. See
pages 21-22 of the manual for more detailed information about the “teach
and test” procedures.
If a child performs poorly on the Beery VMI, it could be because he or she has
adequate visual-perceptual and/or motor coordination abilities but has not yet
learned to integrate, or coordinate, these two domains. Alternatively, it is possible
that the child’s visual and/or motor abilities are deficient. Therefore, examiners can
follow-up with an assessment of visual-perceptual and motor abilities.
Berry VMI Visual Perception Test: If seeing a child under the functional age of
five, administer the new additions designed primarily for preschool age children
(identifying parts of their bodies, identifying picture outlines and parts of a picture in
the Visual Perception Supplemental Test). You will need the small laminated card
that accompanies the manual.
For children at or over the functional age of five, start with task 4. Do NOT cover
the parts of the form to reduce visual distractions because that can invalidate the
norms. To minimize the motor task, point for items 4-6 to the stimulus box and ask
the child to point to the same in the line below. Whether the child responds or not,
and whether the choice is correct or not, teach the task. Staring with item 7, do not
teach any further. Start the stopwatch when the child is working on item 7. There is
a 3-minute allotment for this test. Children over six can be allowed to mark
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their own responses. Have them draw an X through any choice they first
choose then reject.
Staring with item 4, score the child’s first response to each item before teaching it.
One point is awarded for each correct item up to three consecutive incorrect items or
the 3-minute time limit, whichever comes first. Assume that the child is able to
complete the first three tasks (automatic 3 points) and add up to a maximum of 30
available points.
Beery VMI Motor Coordination Test: There are three observations to score for
Motor Coordination. These observations are primarily for children under the
functional age of 5, but you are asked to record these observations if you administer
the Motor Coordination Supplemental Test for child at or over the functional age of
five:
1. Child climbs into and sits in adult chair without help.
2. Child holds pencil with thumb and fingertips (need not just be two fingers).
3. Child holds paper with one hand and scribbles or draws with the other.
The remaining 27 tasks are to simply trace the forms with a pencil without going
outside the double-lined path. Demonstrate 4A and have child try 4B as per
standardized instructions. If the child does not respond correctly, trace over your line
on 4A and repeat instructions. If the child still does not respond correctly, hold
his/her hand and guide it to make the line in 4B. Continue to test/teach as needed to
complete 5B and 6B. Starting with item 7, do not teach any further. Start the
stopwatch when the child is working on item 7. There is a 5-minute allotment for
this test. For items 17-21 only, you can cue a child one time per item “Have
you done all the parts you see in this one? Be sure to so all of the parts on
yours!” Do not stop scoring after three consecutive errors. See the manual (page
87 –88) for scoring criteria. Again, assume the three points given for the three motor
tasks, then add the scores starting from item number 4, to a total of 30 available
points.
Reporting: Raw scores can then be converted from the raw scores to the standard,
scaled and percentile scores by utilizing the age charts at the back of the manual.
Beery suggests using standard scores or percentiles when reporting scores. Age
equivalents should be used with caution as they can easily be misinterpreted.
STRENGTHS:
The Beery VMI is virtually culture-free, utilizing geometric shapes instead of letters
or numerals. It offers 20 items for the under eight age-range for early identification
and prevention. It has achievable shapes and can be fun for children under eight, to
prevent early frustration and to help develop rapport between child and adult. The
assessment also allows time for the examiner to sit back and observe the child at a
pencil-paper task. It is a quick assessment to administer with relatively few
materials. The manual itself provides developmental illustrations for assessment and
teaching. The manual also includes Stepping Stones (age-equivalents) for gross
motor, fine motor, visual, and visual motor development in Appendix A.
LIMITATIONS:
Instructions provided by examiner, as well as the attention of a child to the task can
greatly affect the results. Visual perception only addresses form constancy and
discrimination but not all other components of visual perception (there are better
screens for this). Certain figures on the motor coordination tasks are difficult for
children to understand (e.g. draw a dot in the circles, rather than connecting the
circles dot-to-dot). The supplemental tests are not purely visual perception and
motor coordination tests, as there are elements of both intermingled in the tasks.
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STANDARDIZATION: Standardized norms have been included for children two-year old to adult. It has
been standardized fives times between 1964 and 2003, with a total of 11,000 +
children. The norms for the Beery VMI are provided in two-month intervals. The
supplemental forms are provided in four-month intervals. The fifth-edition norms
were gathered in 2002-2003, with a correlation of .99 obtained between the 1995
and 2003 edition (based upon random samples of two to four year olds, 50 children
in a group). The resulting norms for the fifth edition are based upon a total sample of
2512 children obtained from the four major sections of the United States.
VALIDITY:
Strongly supported content validity, concurrent and predictive validity Low statistical
difference between gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and place of residence
(urban-rural).
RELIABILITY:
For content sampling, the Rasch-Wright results indicate high content reliability for
the Beery VMI; its total group item separation was 1.00, and it’s total group person
separation was .96. For internal consistency, the Beery VMI had an overall odd-even
split-half correlation of .88. The overall reliability (an average of Anastasi’s three
major reliability error sources of inter-scorer, internal consistency and test-retest)
indicated that the Beery VMI and the supplemental tests had overall average
reliabilities of .92 (Beery VMI), .91 (V.P.) and .90 (M.C.).
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