The Bender-Gestalt Test as an Indicator of Neurological Impairment in Young Inner-City Children

The black and white, 7- and 8-yr.-old “inner-city” children in the Johns Hopkins Collaborative Perinatal Study obtained generally higher error scores on the Bender-Gestalt test than Koppitz's norms. They also performed less well on the WISC, Wide Range Achievement tests, and the Gray Oral Reading tests than the standardization populations for each test. Contrary to expectations, no significant relationship was found between high Bender error scores and neurological status or reading ability. Thus, the Bender at 7 yr. was not a good predictor of neurological abnormality in these young “inner-city” children.