Can Eye Tracking Identify Prognostic Markers for Learning Disabilities? A Preliminary Study

Eye tracking is a promising technology offering objective metrics quantifying visual attention in various application fields. The employment in people with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), who reportedly manifest long-term functional social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties, provided well understandings of their visual attention, detecting cognitive processing mechanisms regarding specific SLD patterns. This study focuses on investigating and reporting the potential of eye tracking technology to identify multifaceted prognostic markers for SLDs. 30 adults (M: 16, F: 14) aged 29.8 ± 13.35 years old were presented with audiovisual stimuli in ordered digital tasks targeted to take real time metrics on (i) emotions, (ii) body scheme perception, and (iii) digital reading out loud. All digital visual stimuli consisted of still images accompanied by audio instructions. Cluster analysis indicated the presence of a variation between groups according to metrics and tasks. Descriptive statistics, gaze heatmaps and cluster diagrams give insights of this study, indicating that reading fixations provide the potential of promising metrics in the current classification. The development of eye tracking digital innovative systems may prove to be a valuable tool for early identification of SLDs, employing learning mobile technology to (i) reduce screening and diagnostic costs and (ii) enhance clinician’s efficiency.