Separating Visuospatial from Visuomotor Coordination in Skill Estimation in Learning Disabled Children: The Eta-Mu Model

Purpose A model aimed at detecting the proportion of visuoperceptive and visuomotor coordination impairment in children with ascertained or suspected learning disability is described. The final purpose is to provide customized rehabilitation programs. Methods In this pilot study, four children (8-9 years) were administered a set of standardized tests to evaluate their ability to perform visuoperceptive and visuomotor tasks. Depending on the individual outcomes, two indexes have been computed from the resulting z-scores: η (Eta) that quantifies the visuoperceptive impairment, and μ (Mu) that expresses the alteration in visuomotor coordination. Results A condition of abnormality was evident in each patient: Subjects 1 and 3 suffered mainly from a visuoperceptive alteration (η higher than expected), while Subject 4 had reduced visuomotor coordination (μ higher than expected). Subject 2 showed balanced visuoperceptive and visuomotor impairment. Based on the obtained η and μ values, each child underwent a customized rehabilitation treatment, then they were examined again. At re-test, η or μ turned balanced and z-scores improved in the four patients. Conclusions The Eta/Mu model is effective in detecting the type of damage by quantifying the share of visuoperceptive and visuomotor coordination involvement in dyslexic children, allowing a customized rehabilitative approach. Such an approach, focused on treating the function found to be defective, appears to be effective in rebalancing individual visuomotor and visuoperceptive skills; it should, therefore, be taken into consideration when updating the rehabilitation plans of learning disabled children.