Abstract
Coordination of eye and head movements on nonreading tasks was investigated in 16 reading-disabled and 18 normal children aged 6 to 11 years. Types of eye movements are described and mechanisms controlling eye and head movement are reviewed. Significant differences were found between the two groups in sequencing of eye and head movements that were made in response to the appearance of visual stimuli at unexpected times and positions. Some reading-disabled children also were found to require more eye movements to achieve fixation on targets at known positions. It is suggested that the vestibular system may be implicated as a factor in the results obtained from the reading-disabled children and that the atypical eye-head movement patterns observed may aid in stabilizing their visual world.
