Eye Tracking as a Tool for Diagnosing Specific Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The chapter intends to highlight the use of eye tracker, a tool that tracks eye movements, as a potential tool to aid diagnosis of specific learning disabilities along with psychometric tests. The issue of identifying and assessing children for specific learning disabilities is very difficult and crucial for the psychological, social, and personal wellbeing of the child growing into an adult. A common technique for diagnosing specific learning disabilities is the need of the hour. The eye is considered to be the window to the brain. Any differences in the eye movement can reflect disorders or diseases in the functional areas of cerebral cortex, brain stem, cerebellum, and other areas of the brain. The most important contribution of eye tracking research is it allows examination of different aspects of cognitive performance in moment-to-moment details on very simple tasks and infer the neurobiological basis of cognitive processes. Therefore, the chapter focuses on studies related to use of eye trackers as a futuristic technique in the diagnosis of specific learning disabilities.