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The Developmental Eye Movement Test Does Not Detect Oculomotor Problems: Evidence from Children with Nystagmus
Nouk Tanke1, Annemiek D Barsingerhorn, Jeroen Goossens1
1Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Summary
The Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test is not effective in detecting eye movement disorders in individuals with nystagmus. This study suggests the DEM test should not be used for evaluating oculomotor disorders in these patients.
Area of Science:
- Ophthalmology
- Neuroscience
- Pediatric Optometry
Background:
- The Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test is designed to assess oculomotor skills by comparing horizontal and vertical number naming subtests.
- The test aims to identify oculomotor problems independently of visual-verbal naming abilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the construct validity of the DEM test ratio in children with and without pathological nystagmus.
- To determine if the DEM test ratio is sensitive to oculomotor abnormalities caused by nystagmus.
Main Methods:
- Compared DEM test performance in normally sighted children, children with ocular visual impairments (VI o), and children with cerebral visual impairment.
- Included participants with fusion maldevelopment nystagmus syndrome and infantile nystagmus syndrome.
- Analyzed data using linear regression.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in subtest times were found between children with normal vision, VI o, and cerebral visual impairment (P < .001).
- The presence of nystagmus did not significantly affect horizontal and vertical subtest times (P > .20) or the DEM ratio (P > .10).
Conclusions:
- The DEM test ratio lacks the sensitivity to detect fixation and saccade abnormalities in nystagmus, questioning its general construct validity for diagnosing eye movement disorders.
- While not suitable for evaluating oculomotor disorders in nystagmus, DEM subtests may still be clinically relevant for diagnosing cerebral visual impairment.
