Reading without words: a paradigm to examine developmental aspects of normal and dyslectic reading

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The first phase of the present project established the Landolt paradigm as an innovative research tool that allows for an approximation of reading eye movements in a language free task. A longitudinal study from kindergarten to 2nd grade demonstrated that even before the start of reading instruction children with good vs. poor Landold reading can be identified and that as development progresses eye movements in this task become more and more reading-like. Other findings suggest that a subgroup of children with dyslexia has substantial difficulties with Landolt scanning and that this impacts on eye movements during reading.We start from the assumption that different causes can contribute to reading deficits, leading to subtypes of dyslexia with variable etiologies. Following this hypothesis, it appears likely that in some dyslectic children atypical eye movements are caused by problems in linguistic processing, while in a second group such irregularities may be related to deficits in non-linguistic processes. More detailed analyses of such deficits become possible when preschool scanning data are compared to later reading behavior. Focusing on children who are more vs. less successful in the Landolt scanning task, experimental studies can illuminate factors contributing to atypical eye movements and associated word processing difficulties. Based on this theoretical context, two related subprojects are intended to pursue the following objectives:1. The longitudinal study with combined eye movement recording and psychometric assessments will be continued to further clarify the role of atypical eye movement behavior over the course of reading development. A key hypothesis is that a subgroup of children with dyslexia in grade 4 or 5 will be identified who had irregularities in the Landolt task even before reading acquisition and that this has consequences for later reading behavior. Equally important, the longitudinal study is expected to deliver important new insights into the joint development of word processing and eye movement control.2. A series of innovative experimental studies (again using the Landolt task) will examine whether and how two currently understudied key processes of reading contribute to developmental difficulties up to the level of dyslexia. This work is focused on spatially distributed (parafoveal) information acquisition and, on the other hand, spatial navigation and memory, which are both intimately interwoven with attentional processes. Especially promising is the question of whether resource overload caused by less effective basic processing routines can lead to deficits in reading comprehension. The use of a unified theory-based battery of assessments for both subprojects will allow for the identification of relationships between experimental findings and individual profiles of performance with respect to key components of reading skill.