Visual Perceptual Motor Training on Kindergarteners

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The study aims to investigate the effects of different visuomotor training programs on children's visuomotor skills and handwriting performance.

Detailed Description
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The purpose of this project is to investigate the effectiveness of visuomotor activities with different activity materials on fine motor, visual perception, visual-motor integration and handwriting performance of kindergarten children. Kindergarteners will be randomized into the three groups: control, Chinese, and traditional groups. Children in the Chinese and traditional groups will receive a visual perceptual motor training program twice every week for 12 weeks and those in the control group will not receive any intervention during the study period. in the end of fall semester of the first grade, the effectiveness of the interventional programs on handwriting performance of participants will be examined again.

Official Title
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Effects of Different Visual-perceptual-motor Training Courses on Kindergarten Children

Conditions
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Agraphia

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Chinese character-based visuomotor training program
* Behavioral: traditional visuomotor training program


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Kindergarten children who will study the first grade in coming September Both parents are native Mandarin Chinese speakers Exclusion Criteria: A diagnosis of significant neurological, muscular, and skeletal system disorders Visual or hearing problems that cannot be corrected to be normal Genetic or chromosomal abnormality Significant neurological, muscular, and skeletal damage to the trunk or upper extremities moderate or severe intellectual disabilities

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 5 Years
Maximum Age: 6 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control group<br>regular kindergarten education | |
| Experimental: Chinese characters-based visual-motor program<br>visual perceptual motor activities using Chinese characters as activity materials. | Behavioral: Chinese character-based visuomotor training program<br>* this program includes visual-perceptual-motor play, paper-pencil activities, and ipad games using Chinese character as activity materials<br>|
| Experimental: traditional visual-motor training program<br>visual perceptual motor activities using commercial or self-designed toys and pencil-paper sheets as activity materials. | Behavioral: traditional visuomotor training program<br>* this program includes play and paper-and-pencil activities, ipad games using commercial or self-designed stuffs as activity materials<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The Chinese Handwriting Test | the change of the handwriting performance | baseline, after 12-week intervention, through study completion, an average of 1 year | 
| The Chinese character recognition Test | the change of the Chinese character recognition ability | baseline, after 12-week intervention, through study completion, an average of 1 year | 
| The Chinese Handwriting Evaluation Form (preschool version) | the change of handwriting performance by kindergarten teacher's rating | baseline, after 12-week intervention | 
| The Chinese Handwriting Evaluation Form (School-aged version) | the change of handwriting skills by teacher's rating | through study completion, an average of 1 year | 
| The Battery of Chinese Basic Literacy | the change of reading and handwriting skills | through study completion, an average of 1 year | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-Fourth Edition (TVPS-4) | the change of visual perceptual skills | baseline, after 12-week intervention, through study completion, an average of 1 year | 
| The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-Second Edition (BOT-2) | the change of fine motor skills | baseline, after 12-week intervention, through study completion, an average of 1 year | 
| The Berry-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration- Forth Edition (VMI) | the change of VMI | baseline, after 12-week intervention, through study completion, an average of 1 year | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Visual, Kindergarten, Chinese