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Reading and Writing

, Volume 30, Issue 2, pp 233–252 | Cite as

How strong and weak readers perform on the Developmental Eye Movement test (DEM): norms for Latvian school-aged children

  • Jelena Serdjukova
  • Lasma Ekimane
  • Janis Valeinis
  • Jurgis Skilters
  • Gunta Krumina
Article
First Online:

Abstract

The aim of our study was to determine DEM test performance norms for school-aged children in Latvia, assess how DEM test results correlate with children’s reading rates, compare test performance between strong and weak readers. A modified DEM test and a newly developed reading test were administered to 1487 children during a screening survey. Our study provides norms for adjusted DEM scores for children from 7 to 18 years of age. A high correlation exists between a child’s reading rate and her DEM speed scores for both parts of the test. Weak readers performed significantly more slowly on the DEM test than strong readers. Overall, 6 % of the subject population scored 1 standard deviation below the mean value on both the DEM and reading tests. We conclude that these individuals may be at a higher risk for developing reading impairments.

Keywords

School-aged children Development Eye Movement test Reading rate 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The work represented in this article is a part of a large research project (“The study of vision and visual perception disorders in school-age children: development of diagnostic methods”, Department of Optometry and Vision science, Latvia) including a representative screening survey for school-age children (project and all authors are supported by ERDF No. 2011/0004/2DP/2.1.1.1.0/10/APIA/VIAA/027).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jelena Serdjukova
    • 1
  • Lasma Ekimane
    • 1
  • Janis Valeinis
    • 2
  • Jurgis Skilters
    • 3
  • Gunta Krumina
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Optometry and Vision ScienceNatural Sciences Academic CentreRigaLatvia
  2. 2.Department of MathematicsFaculty of Physics and MathematicsRigaLatvia
  3. 3.Department of Communication ScienceCenter for Cognitive Sciences and SemanticsRigaLatvia

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