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The developmental eye movement (DEM) test is a practical and simple method for assessing and quantifying ocular motor skills in children. Different studies have previously assessed the reliability of the DEM test and they have generally found high values for vertical and horizontal time, whereas those for Ratio and Errors were medium and low, respectively. In the second application of test were found an improvement in performance in all subtests. Our aim was to evaluate the reliability of the DEM test using seconds and percentile scoring and looking in depth at the improvement in performance when the test is repeated. We tested the reliability of the DEM test on a group of 115 children from the 2nd to the 5th grade using different statistical methods: correlations, ANOVA, limits of agreement for results expressed in seconds and as percentile scoring and pass-fail diagnostic classification. We found high reliability with excellent values for vertical and adjusted horizontal time, medium-to-high for ratio and medium for errors. We have re-confirmed the presence of a significant improvement of performance on the second session for vertical time, horizontal time and ratio. The stability of binary classification of Pass–Fail criteria appears to be medium. We found high reliability for the DEM test when compared with the published results of other research but the improvement of performance, the learning effect was still present, but at a lower level than previously found. With the awareness of these limitations the DEM test can be used in clinical practice in evaluating performance over time.

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The Groffman Visual Tracing (GVT) test is a psychometric oculomotor test comprising two cards with five contorted and intersected lines, and which is available for the clinical evaluation of ocular movements. The participant starts from the letter at the top, follows the line, and reports the corresponding number at the bottom of each line. The aim of this study is to evaluate two claims made when details of the GVT test were originally reported: whether it is a developmental test, and the feasibility of its application starting from primary school children up to adults. This was achieved by using the GVT test and a simplified version of it. In two consecutive experiments, we tested two groups of children and adults. In the first experiment, 75 children (1st, 3rd, and 5th grade) and 25 adults underwent the GVT test. In the second experiment, 115 children from 1st to 5th grade underwent a simplified version of the test. Total scoring, accuracy and time to complete the test were evaluated. In the first experiment, 24% of children in the 1st and 3rd grades did not follow any lines correctly due to the difficulty of the test. In the second experiment, all participants were able to perform the test with both cards, and the accuracy improved significantly with age (p<0.0001). The time required to follow the lines was found to decrease with age (p<0.0001), and the accuracy improves (p<0.0001) compared with the standard version. The standard version of the GVT test has proven to be too difficult for younger children and a modified version produced improved results. Children at or below the 5th grade should to be tested using the modified version. Older children and adults can be tested with the standard version. Specific norms based on execution times and accuracy should to be established.