Developmental eye movement test: What is it really measuring?

Abstract

Purpose. The Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test is commonly used as a clinical visual-verbal ocular motor assessment tool. However, while the DEM test ratio has been reported to correlate with horizontal saccadic eye movements, there have been no published comparative studies of the DEM test and objective eye movement measures. The aim of this study was to compare DEM test performance with explicit quantification of saccadic eye movements, reading performance, symptomatology and visual processing speed, to assess the validity of the DEM test in clinical practice. Methods. One hundred fifty-eight children aged 8 to 11 years completed the DEM test and a battery of eye movement tasks, record..