Abstract:
The study examined the pattern of eye movements of 16 dyslexic and 16 age-matched, nondyslexic, German-speaking children during reading loudly words of different length and frequency.
Eye movements were registered using a Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (SLO), which allows a high accurate recording and minimizes interfering artifacts. Central point of interest was to investigate, whether difficulties in the cognitive processes of word recognition are reflected in the eye movement pattern of dyslexic children. The results show a highly significant word-frequency effect for central parameters of the analysis, like the percentage of regressions, the number of fixations and the fixation duration. Furthermore, the results indicate that the regularity of the graphem-phonem-correspondence leads to differences in eye movement parameters, and the outcome of the word-frequency and word-length effect between the German and English written language. Overall, the results do not support the hypothesis that the differences between the eye movement patterns of dyslexic and normal reading children are caused by an oculomotor deficit.