Effects of Object Control Skill Training Given Together with Frostig Visual Perception Training Program on Object Control Skills of 54-59 Month Old Children

This research was planned with the recommendation of Tepeli (2013) in accordance with the findings of her research where the relationship between gross motor skills and visual perception of preschoolers was examined. Related research consists of two studies. In the first study the correlation between Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception sub-test and total test scores and Test of Gross Motor Development Locomotor Skills, Object Control Skills subtest and Gross Motor Skill total test scores of involved children was examined. As a result of analysis a positive significant relationship was found between all sub-test and total test scores of the children, Object Control Skills and Eye-Motor Coordination sub test of Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception being in the first place. As a result of the regression analysis of the first study Developmental Test of Visual Perception subtest and total test scores of the children were found to be significant predictor of their object control skill scores. In the second study, Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception subtest and total test scores of the children having low, medium and high levels of locomotor, object control, and gross motor skills were compared by F-test. According to the results Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception subtest and total test scores of the children differ depending on their object control skills. Tepeli (2013), in line with these findings, developed a proposal saying that ‘Researches should be planned to examine the effect of gross motor skill or object control skill training integrated with the visual perception training on object control skills of children’. Therefore, the study aims to find an answer to the question of ‘Does object control skill training given together with Frostig visual perception training program affect object control skills of 54-59 month old children?’ Method: Research Model: Research was carried out by using experimental model with pre-test and post-test control group. Dependent variable in the model is object control skill of 54-59 month old children, while independent variable is object control skill training given together with Frostig visual perception training program, of which the effect on object control skill levels of the children is being studied. The groups in the study were formed by biased assignment design. The purpose of establishing groups by biased assignment design was to determine exact effect of Object Control Skills Training program with Frostig Visual Perception Training Program to be implemented, by selecting children having low object control skills. Participants: 80 children attending four different independent kindergartens in Konya city center, having low level of object control skill ages ranging from 54 to 59 months participated in this research. While determining the children participating in the study, purposive sampling method was used in order to test the aims of the research in a more reliable way and to be able to clearly monitor the effect of Object Control Skills Training program with Frostig Visual Perception Training Program. While establishing the working group it was decided to work only with independent kindergartens in point of the opportunity to reach a large number of 54-59 month old children and easiness in applying object control skill training program. Each of four groups, which were required for designed experimental model, was selected from different kindergartens because of the criteria of age, gender and low object control skills. While determining these four different independent kindergartens, attention was paid to choose the ones with equal features and which children of the same social economic environment attend to. First of all, 54-59 month old children attending to these four independent preschool were determined. Object Control Skill sub test of Test of Gross Motor Development was applied to these children. By using norm values of Test of Gross Motor Development children with 7 or less Object Control Skills subtest standard score were identified. Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception was applied to these children. 10 girls, 10 boys, a total of 20 children were selected from each institution by taking their Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception subtest and total test scores and Object Control Skill scores into account. Instruments: Developmental Test of Visual Perception’, which was developed by Frostig (1961), is used to determine visual perceptions of the children participating in the study. ‘Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition (TGMD-2)’ that was developed by Ulrich (2000) and adapted to Turkish with validity and reliability by Tepeli at. al (2008) was used to determine the object control skills of children. Procedures: As a pretest Object Control Skills subtest of Test of Gross Motor Development Second Edition (TGMD-2) and Developmental Test of Visual Perception were applied to the children participating in the study. As a posttest only Object Control Skills subtest of Test of Gross Motor Development Second Edition (TGMD-2) was applied. Three experimental and one control group took place in the study. To the first experimental group Frostig visual perception training program was applied together with object control skills training program, to the second experimental group only object control skills training program was applied while visual perception training program was applied to the third experimental group. No additional work was done with the children in the control group. Children in this group only participated in the curriculum of the pre-school institution they are attending. Data Analysis: Single factor Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test whether object control skill post test scores of children included in the experimental and control groups of the research differ or not. Bonferroni test was used in cases where ANCOVA was significant. Findings: Findings of the research show that according to the ANCOVA analysis a significant difference (F(3,75)= 50.598, p 0.001) was observed between Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition (TGMD-2) Object Control Skills sub-test corrected posttest mean scores of children in four different groups. While examining Object Control Skill average scores of children in four different groups, it was determined that the highest corrected posttest mean score belongs to the children of the group (24.87) which received object control skill training together with Frostig visual perception training program. This group was fallowed respectively by the group (23.65) that received object control skills training, Frostig visual perception training group (19.45) and the control group (15.93). According to the results of Bonferroni test, that was conducted to test the significance of difference among the groups, the difference between object control skill corrected post-test mean scores of the group where object control skills training was applied with Frostig visual perception training program and the group where object control skills training was applied were not statistically significant (p 0.05). However, object control skill corrected post-test mean scores of the children in three different experimental group was found to be significantly higher than object control skill corrected post-test mean scores of the children in the control group (p 0.001).