Eye movements, prematurity and developmental co-ordination disorder

Horizontal pursuit eye movements were investigated in two separate groups of children: One group exhibited developmental co-ordination disorder (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 temporally synchronize their tracking response to the stimulus, which was indicative of poor predictive control rather than lags in the control system. We suggest that horizontal eye movements may be a sensitive indicator of more general motor deficits during childhood development.