Analysis of Eye Movements in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder During a Handwriting Copy Task

Abstract

Little is known concerning eye movements during handwriting, especially for children with handwriting disabilities (dysgraphia), because of head movements which limit this kind of analysis. In this paper we present an exploratory study analyzing eye movements during a handwriting copy task using eye-tracking glasses in children with comorbid dysgraphia and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), and in Control (CTL) children. We found that children with DCD spent less time looking at what they were writing than CTL children. Moreover, children with DCD made shorter fixations when writing and these fixations tend to be more numerous, suggesting distinct oculomotor strategies during handwriting copy tasks in these children.