Study on the Standardization of DE-Visual Sequential Memory Test(VSM) : Standard Value of the DE-VSM in the Primary School Children

P(論文)The purpose of this study is to establish a standard value for the DE-VSM score in primary school children. This test was developed by the authors' research group as one of the screening tests for neurological disorders such as mental retardation, epilepsy and minimal brain dysfunction syndrome in school children. The authors developed this new DE-VSM with reference to Ikuzawa's "New K-Developmental Test" in 1985. Through trial and error experiments, we selected one of the sub-tests named "Tapping blocks" and thought that it would be effective to evaluate the visual sequential memory for the children. The original test items of "Tapping blocks" in the K-Developmental Test consists of twelve items, but out of these twelve items we selected seven items and added three newly developed test items. The time needed to administer the DE-VSM is about two minutes forty seconds per child. The subjects of this study were 757 apparently normal children ranging from six to twelve years of age in I Town, Tsukuba-Gun, Ibaraki Prefecture. The developmental change of the average score and standard deviation by age and sex were obtained. Based on these data, "pass-nonpass criteria" by age and sex were established. The validity and reliability of DE-VSM for primary school children will be examined in Part II in this study.departmental bulletin pape