Delayed visual orienting responses in children with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities.
Remote eye-tracking spots visual orienting delays in most kids with developmental or intellectual disability without needing their cooperation.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers used remote eye-tracking to test visual orienting in the kids with developmental delay or intellectual disability.
Kids simply watched a screen while cameras tracked their eye movements—no instructions or cooperation needed.
The team measured how quickly each child looked toward new pictures that popped up on the screen.
What they found
Seventy-two percent of the children showed delayed visual orienting.
Delays were strongest in kids older than four who also had intellectual disability.
Remote eye-tracking caught these delays even when kids could not follow spoken directions.
How this fits with other research
Torelli et al. (2023) extended this method to kids with cerebral visual impairment. They found high-contrast targets give the steadiest data, building on the 2013 protocol.
Torelli et al. (2023) also linked weaker eye-tracking scores to poorer everyday vision in CVI. This shows the same tool can predict real-world struggles, not just lab delays.
Lin et al. (2012) used paper-pencil visual tests in Chinese kids with ID. Their results line up—both studies find visual gaps in developmental disability, just with different tools.
Why it matters
You can screen visual orienting in non-verbal or uncooperative clients in under five minutes. If eye-tracking shows delays, especially in kids over four with ID, plan more visual supports and refer for full vision evaluation.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Assessment of higher visual processing functions mostly requires active cooperation of participants, which is problematic in children with intellectual disabilities (ID). To circumvent this, we applied remote eye tracking to quantify (ab)normal visual orienting responses in children with ID in terms of reaction times to visual stimuli. METHODS: We presented visual stimuli (cartoon, coherent form, and coherent motion) to 127 children (2-14 years) with developmental and/or ID (risk group) and simultaneously measured their orienting ocular motor responses. Reaction times to fixation (RTF) in the risk group were compared with RTF values of an age-matched control group. RESULTS: Overall, in 72% of the children in the risk group, RTF values to cartoon were delayed, in 47% to form, and in 38% to motion. The presence of delayed reaction times was highest in the group of children >4 years with ID. CONCLUSION: Our data show that a majority of children with developmental and/or ID have delayed visual orienting responses. This suggests that this group has increased risk for higher visual processing dysfunctions. Future studies are planned to correlate abnormal orienting responses to type of brain damage and to dissociate the responses from ocular motor disorders.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2013 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01610.x