Bender Gestalt Test, Visual Aural Digit Span Test and Reading Achievement

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Abstract
The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test and the Visual Aural Digit Span Test (VADS) were administered to three groups of eight- and nine-year-old children of normal ability. Two groups consisted of special class pupils with learning disabilities, one who could read and one who could not read. Average pupils served as the control group. The Bender Test was able to differentiate between pupils with learning disabilities and the control group, but not between the readers and nonreaders. Thus the Bender Test appears to be related to overall school functioning and learning disabilities rather than to reading achievement as such. The VADS Test, on the other hand, could discriminate between subjects who could and who could not read, but not between the LD pupils who could read and the control group. The VADS Test seems to be, therefore, more closely related to reading than to overall school functioning. The two tests measure different functions and complement each other as screening instruments for elementary school children.