Perceptual-visual-motor measures, reading and properties of eye movements of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

This study is aimed to compare and relate the performance of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and with good academic performance in the perceptual-visual-motor and reading processes, and to verify the eye movements' pattern of students with ADHD during reading. Twenty students from primary school, both male and female, and aged between eight and twelve years old, participated in this study. They were divided into two groups: Group I (GI): composed of 20 students with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of ADHD, and Group II (GII): composed of 20 students with an equal good academic performance according to gender, age group and education with GI. All students were submitted to the Reading Processes Assessment protocol (PROLEC), Developmental Test of Visual Perception 3 (DTVP 3). PROLEC text reading test was administered to the students, also through the computer support. During this activity, the Gazepoint GP3 Eye Tracker equipment was used, which records the eye movements and analyses their properties by using the Gazepoint Analysis UX Edition Software for capturing eye movement during reading. These procedures were applied individually with students from both groups. The results were statistically analyzed, and revealed that the difficulties of students with ADHD in the reading processes could be justified by the perceptual-visual-motor deficit, and the shorter fixing time for capturing the information of each word read. This compromises the ability to identify and decode words, leading to difficulty in accessing meaning at the level of words and texts.