Training visual-spatial ability in EMR children.

Educable mentally retarded children were randomly assigned to either a visual-spatial training condition or a control group. The children who received training showed a gain from pretest to posttest on the Children's Embedded Figures Test that corresponds to approximately 4 years of maturation in nonretarded children. The performance of the children in the control group on the posttest was not significantly different from their performance on the pretest. Correlations between measures of visual-spatial ability and the employment adjustment of retarded persons obtained by other investigators suggest the potential importance of developing the visual-spatial skills of this population.