Children with dyslexia have previously been demonstrated to perform more corrective saccades in sequential non-reading saccade tasks, having trouble with maintaining a stable fixation, as well as reduced performance in smooth pursuit tasks. The current study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of different eye movements (saccades, smooth pursuit eye movements and fixation stability) in children with and without reading difficulties who were tested by a validated reading performance test applied in the school environment. Altogether, 377 children (6–13 years old; 182 boys and 196 girls) were voluntarily involved in the study. Reading performance was determined by the Acadience^® Reading literacy assessment tool. The Tobii Pro Fusion Eye-tracker was applied to determine oculomotor performance in children with and without reading difficulties. The results of saccadic eye movement, smooth pursuit eye movement, and fixation stability in a non-reading task did not reveal a statistically significant difference in oculomotor performance in children with and without reading difficulties. The results of the current study indicate that the oculomotor system in children with reading difficulties (not excluding dyslexia) is intact. The results propose that the observed differences with previous studies exploring eye movements in dyslexic children might be attributed to the participant selection.

(1) Background: Saccadic eye movements are rapid eye movements aimed to position the object image on the central retina, ensuring high-resolution data sampling across the visual field. Although saccadic eye movements are studied extensively, different experimental settings applied across different studies have left an open question of whether and how stimulus parameters can affect the saccadic performance. The current study aims to explore the effect of stimulus contrast and spatial position on saccadic eye movement latency, peak velocity and accuracy measurements. (2) Methods: Saccadic eye movement targets of different contrast levels were presented at four different spatial positions. The eye movements were recorded with a Tobii Pro Fusion video-oculograph (250 Hz). (3) Results: The results demonstrate a significant effect of stimulus spatial position on the latency and peak velocity measurements at a medium grey background, 30 cd/m² (negative and positive stimulus polarity), light grey background, 90 cd/m² (negative polarity), and black background, 3 cd/m² (positive polarity). A significant effect of the stimulus spatial position was observed on the accuracy measurements when the saccadic eye movement stimuli were presented on a medium grey background (negative polarity) and on a black background. No significant effect of stimulus contrast was observed on the peak velocity measurements under all conditions. A significant stimulus contrast effect on latency and accuracy was observed only on a light grey background. (4) Conclusions: The best saccadic eye movement performance (lowest latency, highest peak velocity and accuracy measurements) can be observed when the saccades are oriented to the right and left from the central fixation point. Furthermore, when presenting the stimulus on a light grey background, a very low contrast stimuli should be considered carefully.

The aim of the study was to determine the normative data of the computerized DEM test for school-age children in Latvia. The study analyzed data on the performance (test execution time, duration, number of fixations, and number of errors) of 291 children while completing the computerized DEM test. Eye movement fixations were recorded with a Tobii Pro Fusion video-oculograph (250 Hz). According to the results of the study, the performance of the computerized DEM test is 77 %. For the study, 1 SD (one standard deviation) was chosen as a criterion for determining test norms. In the study, the norms of the computerized DEM test in Latvia were developed in class groups—from 1st to 6th grade (aged 7 to 12 years), the results were summarized in a table as the minimum performance values of the computerized DEM test.

Previous studies have demonstrated that saccadic eye movements are slow and imprecise in infants; however, by age 7, they are close to the adult levels. Saccadic eye movement efficiency peaks in adolescence, and after age 50, peak velocity and accuracy begin to decline due to age-related changes in the brain. Different studies have demonstrated the age effect on the reflexive and antisaccade task performance, e.g., a decrease in latency and peak velocity scores with age. The current study aims to explore age-related changes in saccadic eye movement latency, peak velocity, and accuracy in reflexive and antisaccade tasks in school-age children. Saccadic eye movement targets for antisaccade and reflexive saccade tasks were presented at one spatial position. Eye movements were recorded with a Tobii Pro Fusion video-oculograph to analyse peak velocity, latency, and accuracy (120 Hz). The results demonstrate a significant age effect only on the peak velocity measurements in the antisaccade task, i.e., a decrease in the peak velocity with age was observed only for the antisaccades directed to the right. No significant age effect on the latency and accuracy measurements in both antisaccade and reflexive saccade tasks was observed. The obtained results demonstrate that there are no age-related effects on the parameters of rightward directed reflexive saccades (latency, peak velocity, and accuracy) and antisaccades (latency and accuracy).