Developmental eye movement test results of Hebrew-speaking children with cross-linguistic comparisons

Abstract

Introduction and purpose: The developmental eye movement (DEM) test is designed to assess saccadic eye movements and visual-verbal automaticity in children. This study aimed to assess whether there is a need for independent DEM Hebrew norms and to compare DEM results for Hebrew-speaking children with eight other language norms.

Methods: The DEM test was administered to 224 Hebrew-speaking children aged 6-13 years who met the inclusion criteria and read the numbers in Hebrew. Test C of the DEM was performed twice, once from right (R) to left (L) and once from L to R, in random order. Age group and language comparisons, including vertical and horizontal reading speeds, errors and horizontal/vertical (H/V) ratios in both directions were analysed.

Results: The participants were almost evenly distributed between the sexes (46.8% female). Statistically significant differences were found between age groups (6-9 and 10-13 years) for vertical and horizontal reading speeds and H/V ratios in both directions (p < 0.001). Older children, as compared to younger children, exhibited faster vertical and horizontal times, with fewer errors, as well as lower ratios (p < 0.001). No significant difference was noted between reading directions for horizontal time and H/V ratio within both age groups (6-9 year olds: p = 0.27 and p = 0.06; 10-13 year olds: p = 0.89 and p = 0.49, respectively). Comparison of DEM norms across languages showed significant differences, with post-hoc analysis revealing specific language-related variations. DEM results for Hebrew-speaking children had similar outcomes to both original English and French values.

Conclusions: This study compared DEM results of Hebrew-speaking children and scores across nine languages. DEM test values for Hebrew-speaking children aligned with norms from other languages, particularly the French and original English norms, with consistent ratio scores. It is recommended for practitioners who test Hebrew-speaking children to continue using the original English norms and to enable the children to read using their preferred reading direction.

Keywords: Hebrew; children; developmental eye movement (DEM) test; eye movements; languages; saccades.