The relationship between reading development / disability and visual processing skills

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K20226
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: :Education and related fields
• Research Institution: Osaka Medical and Pharmaceutical University
• Principal Investigator: Okumura Tomohito 大阪医科薬科大学, 小児高次脳機能研究所, 特別職務担当教員(講師) (00538077)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-08-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 視覚情報処理 / 視覚的注意 / 眼球運動 / 発達性読み書き障害 / 限局性学習症

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Using the DEM, a visual attention and eye movement test, and the Tobii Pro Spectrum, an eye movement measuring device, and the Practice Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Specific Developmental Disorders, which measures reading ability, we examined the relationship between visual information processing and reading ability in Japanese children in grades 4-6. Thirteen typically developing children and 35 children with developmental dyslexia were tested and analyzed. The developmentally illiterate children showed lower performance on Test C of the DEM, which is more demanding on visual information processing, and longer fixation time, which is a characteristic of eye movements in Tobii. These results suggest that developmentally illiterate children have impairments in visual information processing and that visual information processing ability may affect reading.

Free Research Field

視覚情報処理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究により、発達性読み書き障害児における視覚情報処理の障害や眼球運動の特性について詳細なデータが得られた。さらに分析結果により、日本語の発達性読み書き障害の発生機序に視覚情報処理が関係するという科学的理解が深まり、視覚情報処理の役割に関する新たな知見が得られたことは大きな学術的意義である。また、視覚情報処理や眼球運動の測定結果を活用することで、発達性読み書き障害の早期発見・早期支援や新たな支援法開発の手がかりとなる可能性があり、社会的意義を持つものである。