Abstract
The behavior on visual-motor coordination tasks of 2- to 4-year-old children (N=18) who had had very low birth weight was compared with that of 27 children born with average birth weight. The 2 groups did not differ on tasks that were predominantly visual, but the very-low-birth-weight group scored significantly lower on tasks that were predominantly motor (p<.05) and on coordination tasks (p<.01). Qualitative analysis revealed that the errors of the very-low-birth-weight children showed unique characteristics. On the predominantly visual tasks, some of the very-low-birth-weight children hardly understood the instructions. On the predominantly motor tasks, the movement of those children's fingers was not differentiated from that of their hand/arm, and the movement of one of their hands was linked to the movement of the other. Furthermore, on coordination tasks, difficulties in referring and correcting functions were seen.
