Saccadic tracking skills of poor readers in high school

Abstract

Background Oculomotor control has been implicated as a factor when reading is poor, but few studies exist for adolescents. Methods The saccadic eye movement efficiency of 684 ninth grade students, identified as poor readers in 5 California high schools, was quantified using the Developmental Eye Movement test. Frequency distributions were produced from scores on vertical and horizontal components, and gender and test-retest factors were considered during analysis. Results Vertical times were within 1 standard deviation of normal for eighth grade. However, horizontal (saccadic) times were typical of grade 3, and the average number of errors on the horizontal test was typical of grade 2. Boys and girls performed similarly. Results of retests showed slightly improved horizontal times and fewer errors, but the grade level equivalents remained dramatically low. Overall, fewer than 10% of students scored above the 50th percentile for eighth grade. Conclusion The results indicate that poor readers in high school may be at high risk for poor saccadic tracking skill.