scholarly journals Oculomotor control in children with Special Educational Needs (SEN): the development and piloting of a novel app-based therapeutic intervention

Author(s):  
Rosie Clark ◽  
Cathy Williams ◽  
Iain D. Gilchrist

AbstractChildren with Special Educational Needs (SEN) often have impaired eye movement control which can impact on a wide range of everyday activities including in the classroom, socialising, participation in sport or crossing a road. Although some health practitioners offer eye movement therapies these tend not to have been systematically developed or evaluated. We have developed a new app to deliver eye movement training, based on detailed scientific understanding of eye movement control and extensive clinical experience with this patient group. We first investigated the acceptability of the app within several schools and made modifications based on detailed feedback from the children. Next, we conducted a pilot study to test the feasibility of using the app with 12 children (5–17 years old) who had SEN. The children successfully undertook app-based training for 10 min per day for 4–5 weeks. There was a high level of attendance and no attrition. We found some variation across participants in their ability to play on the app and the level of engagement. This indicates that pre-assessing children for ability and engagement may be important. This encouraging proof of concept study justifies the development of a full study. Given the time and money spent on existing commercially-offered or internet-based non-validated therapies, this would have substantial patient benefit regardless of the outcome: evidence of no effect could reassure parents that this kind of treatment was not needed, whilst evidence of effect suggests this as a useful treatment for children with poor oculomotor control.

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik D. Reichle ◽  
Keith Rayner ◽  
Alexander Pollatsek

The E-Z Reader model (Reichle et al. 1998; 1999) provides a theoretical framework for understanding how word identification, visual processing, attention, and oculomotor control jointly determine when and where the eyes move during reading. In this article, we first review what is known about eye movements during reading. Then we provide an updated version of the model (E-Z Reader 7) and describe how it accounts for basic findings about eye movement control in reading. We then review several alternative models of eye movement control in reading, discussing both their core assumptions and their theoretical scope. On the basis of this discussion, we conclude that E-Z Reader provides the most comprehensive account of eye movement control during reading. Finally, we provide a brief overview of what is known about the neural systems that support the various components of reading, and suggest how the cognitive constructs of our model might map onto this neural architecture.


2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary E. Raney

E-Z Reader 7 is a processing model of eye-movement control. One constraint imposed on the model is that high-level cognitive processes do not influence eye movements unless normal reading processes are disturbed. I suggest that this constraint is unnecessary, and that the model provides a sensible architecture for explaining how both low- and high-level processes influence eye movements.


2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 1525-1542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sokratis Sklavos ◽  
John Porrill ◽  
Chris R.S. Kaneko ◽  
Paul Dean

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik D. Reichle ◽  
Lesley A. Hart ◽  
Charles A. Perfetti

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 934-947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masafumi Ohki ◽  
Hiromasa Kitazawa ◽  
Takahito Hiramatsu ◽  
Kimitake Kaga ◽  
Taiko Kitamura ◽  
...  

The anatomical connection between the frontal eye field and the cerebellar hemispheric lobule VII (H-VII) suggests a potential role of the hemisphere in voluntary eye movement control. To reveal the involvement of the hemisphere in smooth pursuit and saccade control, we made a unilateral lesion around H-VII and examined its effects in three Macaca fuscata that were trained to pursue visually a small target. To the step (3°)-ramp (5–20°/s) target motion, the monkeys usually showed an initial pursuit eye movement at a latency of 80–140 ms and a small catch-up saccade at 140–220 ms that was followed by a postsaccadic pursuit eye movement that roughly matched the ramp target velocity. After unilateral cerebellar hemispheric lesioning, the initial pursuit eye movements were impaired, and the velocities of the postsaccadic pursuit eye movements decreased. The onsets of 5° visually guided saccades to the stationary target were delayed, and their amplitudes showed a tendency of increased trial-to-trial variability but never became hypo- or hypermetric. Similar tendencies were observed in the onsets and amplitudes of catch-up saccades. The adaptation of open-loop smooth pursuit velocity, tested by a step increase in target velocity for a brief period, was impaired. These lesion effects were recognized in all directions, particularly in the ipsiversive direction. A recovery was observed at 4 wk postlesion for some of these lesion effects. These results suggest that the cerebellar hemispheric region around lobule VII is involved in the control of smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements.


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