A longitudinal analysis of torque and its relationship to achievement and educational classification among normal, disturbed, and learning-disabled children.

Torque (clockwise circlings with either hand on a visual-motor task) has been shown to be related to a variety of academic, personal, and adjustment difficulties (Blau, 1977b). A longitudinal analysis was conducted for 948 third-grade students, selected randomly from various special and nonspecial education programs from a large, urban/suburban school system. Current measures of achievement, grade retention, and special education categorization were related to torque data obtained 4 years previously. Only grade retention was found to differ significantly between the torque and no torque groups. While the overall findings indicate no clear relationship between torque and various academic variables, some significant findings and trends in the data warrant further investigation.