EYE-MOVEMENTS, PREMATURITY AND DEVELOPMENTAL COORDINATION DISORDER

Horizontal pursuit eye movements were investigated in two separate gro ups of children: One group exhibited developmental co-ordination disor der (n = 8) whilst another group of children were born prematurely (n = 8). Both studies found a reduced gain in pursuit eye movements when the respective populations were compared with control groups (n = 32). A difference was also found in the ability of some children to tempor ally synchronize their tracking response to the stimulus, which was in dicative of poor predictive control rather than lags in the control sy stem. We suggest that horizontal eye movements may be a sensitive indi cator of more general motor deficits during childhood development. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.