A Child-Friendly Approach: Leveraging Illusory Motion Designs for Early Dyslexia Diagnosis

Abstract Dyslexia, a prevalent learning disorder, poses significant challenges for affected children, impacting their educational, social, and psychological well-being. Visual perception and processing difficulties are common among children with dyslexia. Leveraging illusory motions, we investigated the neurobiology of vision indirectly and non-invasively. In this research, we present a pattern-driven approach by leveraging illusory motion designs for early dyslexia diagnosis in preschool children. Our descriptive study focused on dyslexic and normal students aged six to nine years in Zanjan city during the 2020-2021 academic year. The dyslexic group (n = 19) comprised students from four learning disorder centers, while the normal group (n = 35) included students from selected schools in districts 1 and 2. We employed 11 illusory motion designs as research tools. Data analysis revealed significantly lower illusory motion perception in dyslexic children compared to their normal peers. Notably, our study introduces an illusory motion stimulus with high potential for early dyslexia diagnosis. It successfully identified illusory movement in 94% of healthy children and 32% of dyslexic children. This innovative approach holds promise for predicting reading disorders during education and serves as a valuable screening tool for vulnerable children before entering school.