Mayo Clinic: In-School Eye Movement Training Improves Early Reading Fluency

PHOENIX, June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new Mayo Clinic study, researchers examined the physical act of reading to see if practicing eye movements in school could lead to better early reading fluency.

Saccades or rapid eye movements are required for the physical act of reading. Previous studies have shown that the ability to perform complex tasks such as saccadic eye movements are not fully developed at the age when children begin to learn to read. Eye movements in younger children are imprecise, resulting in the need for the eyes to go back to re-read text, leading to slower performance. When translated into the task of reading, it slows the reading rate and leads to poor reading fluency and may affect reading comprehension and academic performance.

"There are studies that show that 34 percent of third graders are not proficient in reading, and if you are not proficient in reading by third or fourth grade there is a four times higher likelihood that you will drop out of high school," says Amaal Starling, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist and co-author of the study published in Clinical Pediatrics.

Dr. Starling says that the purpose of the new study was to determine the effect of six weeks of in-school training using the King-Devick remediation software on reading fluency. This software allows people to practice rapid number naming which requires eye movements in a left to right orientation. It teaches the physical act of reading.

In this study, standardized instructions were used, and participants in the treatment group were asked to read randomized numbers from left to right at variable speeds without making any errors. The treatment protocol consisted of 20-minute individual training sessions administered by laypersons, three days each week for six weeks, for a total of six hours of training.

Students in the treatment group had significantly higher reading fluency scores after treatment and post-treatment scores were significantly higher compared with the control group. At the one-year follow-up, reading fluency scores were significantly higher than post-treatment scores for students in first grade. Additionally, these one-year follow-up scores were higher than pretreatment scores across all grades, with an average improvement of 17 percentile rank points in the treatment group.

"The results of this pilot study suggest that the King-Devick remediation software may be effective in significantly improving reading fluency through rigorous practice of eye movements," says Dr. Starling. "What our study also found was that there was an even greater improvement between first and third grade versus third and fourth graders, which means there may be a critical learning period that will determine reading proficiency."

"The outcome of this study suggests that early childhood intervention with a simple methodology of eye movement training via the remediation software, which is inexpensive and can be implemented in developed or developing cultures easily, might allow a lasting improvement in ability to read, with clear sociologic ramifications," says Craig H. Smith, M.D., neuro-ophthalmologist, Chief Medical Officer, Aegis Creative, and Senior Advisor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a co-author of the study.

Dr. Smith adds, "these findings need to be looked at in a larger cohort of children; and, if supportive, with consideration of integration into early educational curriculums cross culturally."

About Mayo Clinic
Recognizing 150 years of serving humanity in 2014, Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit: 150years.mayoclinic.org, http://www.mayoclinic.org and newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jim McVeigh, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 480-301-4222, [email protected].

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SOURCE Mayo Clinic