The objective assessment of abnormal eye movements in infants and young children.

Recordings of eye movements from infants and young children can be of clinical value in patients with certain neuro-ophthalmological problems. This requires that the characteristics of normal eye movements in this same age-group are known. Using an electro-oculographic technique in a specially developed laboratory we have been able to assess the saccades, binocular and monocular smooth pursuit, binocular and monocular optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), and sustained vestibular rotation in infants and young children; these recordings were performed in one session lasting approximately 35 minutes. The recordings from four children with abnormal eye movements (delayed visual maturation, hemicerebral cyst, congenital ocular motor apraxia, and gaze-paretic nystagmus) are briefly reported and compared to normal eye movements of age-related children. The limitations of this procedure are discussed.