The effects of eye movement on reading fluency in Japanese children with developmental dyslexia

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K17473
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Special needs education
• Research Institution: Mejiro University
• Principal Investigator: GOTOH Takashi 目白大学, 保健医療学部, 准教授 (50584231)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 発達性読み書き障害 / 音読 / 流暢性 / 眼球運動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We analyzed the effects of eye movement on reading fluency in Japanese children with developmental dyslexia (DD). The participants in this study were three children with DD. Their reading fluency are normal. To evaluate eye movement function, the clinical observation manual, which was used in training courses certified by the Japanese Academy of Sensory Integration, was made available to assess tracking, convergence, and saccadic eye movements in response to visual targets under direct observation. The Developmental Eye Movement Test (DEM, Bernell, USA) was also used for evaluation. The results revealed that there were two types of children with developmental dyslexia: developmental dyslexic children who did not present with eye movement problems and developmental dyslexic children who presented with eye movement problems. The experimental results suggest that eye movement abnormalities do not affect reading fluency.

Free Research Field

発達性読み書き障害、発達認知神経心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、各種検査結果から得られた客観的データに基づいて評価診断された発達性読み書き障害児を対象に、眼球運動機能と音読の流暢性の関係について検討した。眼球運動機能自体の問題が音読の正確性に影響を与えないことは先行研究から明らかになっていたが、本研究の結果から、眼球運動機能は音読の正確性だけでなく音読の流暢性についても影響を与える要因でない可能性があり、この事実は学術的意義が高いと考えられた。