What does it mean for a child to have deficits in “perceptual-motor integration” and how can this skill be improved?
Here's a thumbnail of what I know......
Perceptual-motor integration refers to the ability of different sensory systems to work together. This would be a broad umbrella term, because there are specific ways sensory systems combine.
Visual-motor integration is just a fancy way of referring to eye-hand coordination. This is the ability of the body to coordinate the visual system with the motor system.
I have heard of visual-auditory integration, but don’t know how it is tested.
Auditory problems often interfere with development of motor skills. I suppose this could be called auditory-motor integration, but the way I have seen it described is as problems with vestibular development. Vestibular development involves things such as rhythm, timing, balance, and motor coordination. A really good website with information about how auditory problems can interfere with vestibular development, and even vision, is http://www.neuroacoustics.com
Sensory Integration Disorder can involve disruption of integration of any of the senses — causing not only motor problems, but often behavioral and socialization problems. In the case of SID, a child can be either hypo- or hyper-sensitive in all or part of one or more sensory systems.
Basically, what you want to do when a child has a perceptual-motor problem, is get all of the sensory systems checked out. Often the evaluations are covered by medical insurance. I have found the best way to ensure coverage is to first locate a really good clinic, and then call the clinic. Usually they work with all of the insurances and can tell you exactly what you need to do to get coverage.
The basic evaluations I advise getting (depends somewhat on the exact problems a child has) are an occupational therapy exam by an OT trained to assess sensory integration, a developmental vision evaluation, and a CAPD evaluation by an audiologist trained to assess CAPD. All of these are specialty areas. Most parents think that if a child has passed a regular eye exam and a regular hearing exam, they can rule out visual and auditory processing disorders. This is simply not true.
Many perceptual-motor problems respond to appropriate interventions and therapies. The problem is that most never get diagnosed properly, and that’s the first step.
Mary
Re: a little more...
Auditory-motor integration is being to coordinate your speach with your body–whether it be small motor skills, movement, or clapping. In therapy, my son has touched his nose said onnne, clapped his legs and said “popcorn” to two beats and then clapped his hands and said “butter”. This works on integrating his auditory system with his motor system.
My son has inefficient visual-auditory integration. This shows up in slowness in naming or reading visual information. This was intially assessed by how fast he could name a page of common pictures and how his speed changed over three trials.
Problems which intersect different sensory systems are difficult to deal with frankly. We have made much progress doing Neuronet therapy which Mary referred to. However, it is not widely available. Depending on the problem, occupational therapy focusing on sensory integration and interactive metronome are other types of alternatives.
I agree with Mary that you need to know a lot more before you can figure out how to tackle your child’s problems.
Beth
I would like to know more about this my son has problems in this area too.