![]() ![]() Note that the comparison with reading-level controls is a much more conservative and stringent test than the more typically used comparison with chronological age controls. For this purpose, we compared 30 of the Italian dyslexics (mean age = 10.9 y) with a group of younger normal readers (mean age = 7.8 y) that were matched for reading level and IQ ( Table S2). It is important to show that letter spacing is particularly beneficial to dyslexic children, because they are thought to suffer more from letter crowding than normally developing children. That is, the worse that children were at identifying letters, the more that they benefitted from the extra spacing. Importantly, the benefit of letter spacing (i.e., accuracy gain) was negatively correlated with performance in a letter identification task that was administered to 20 of the French dyslexics ( r = −0.60, P = 0.005). † Moreover, the sentences were short, made up of high-frequency words, and contained many monosyllabic (even one-letter) function words (determiners, conjunctions, etc.). To fully appreciate this finding, it is important to note that the relatively low number of errors at the group level hides substantial individual differences, because some dyslexic children made virtually no errors (i.e., they were only slow), whereas others made up to 20% errors. ![]() The manipulation of letter spacing improved accuracy in text reading by a factor of two. That is, regardless of whether the spaced text came first or second, dyslexics always made fewer errors on the spaced than the normal text. 2 A) shows that the spaced text condition ameliorated the reading performance of dyslexic children, regardless of the order with which the spaced condition was administered. For accuracy, the critical two-way interaction between test time and group was significant [ F(1,70) = 35.16, P 0.18). group 2) as between-subject factors and test time (T1 vs. Reading accuracy (number of errors) and speed (number of syllables per second) were analyzed using a mixed ANOVA with language (Italian vs. For instance, reading speed in skilled adult readers is slowed when letter spacing is doubled ( 19). Both reduction and increase in spacing have a detrimental effect on reading performance ( 18, 19, 22). Note that the standard letter spacing for text seems to be optimal in skilled adult readers. These findings lead to the prediction that extra-wide interletter spacing in words should reduce crowding and ameliorate reading performance in dyslexics. Crowding might not only slow down reading speed ( 19, 22) but also induce reading errors, because crowding is accompanied by a jumbled percept that is thought to reflect pooling of features from the target and the flankers ( 21). Parsing of a letter string into its constituent graphemes is a key component of phonological decoding ( 28), which in turn, is fundamental for reading acquisition ( 29). It is well-known that letter identification is a fundamental step in visual word recognition and reading aloud ( 26– 28). Moreover, there is mounting evidence that children with developmental dyslexia are more influenced by crowding than age-matched controls, even under optimal viewing condition ( 14– 17, 24, 25). Extra-large letter spacing may help to break the vicious circle by rendering the reading material more easily accessible.Ĭrowding mostly affects peripheral vision in normal adult readers ( 22), but it also affects central vision in school-aged children ( 23). Extra-large letter spacing helps reading, because dyslexics are abnormally affected by crowding, a perceptual phenomenon with detrimental effects on letter recognition that is modulated by the spacing between letters. Here, we show that a simple manipulation of letter spacing substantially improved text reading performance on the fly (without any training) in a large, unselected sample of Italian and French dyslexic children. After the component skills have improved, the main challenge remains (that is, reading deficits must be treated by reading more-a vicious circle for a dyslexic child). Sophisticated training programs exist, but they typically target the component skills of reading, such as phonological awareness. ![]() Although the causes of dyslexia are still debated, all researchers agree that the main challenge is to find ways that allow a child with dyslexia to read more words in less time, because reading more is undisputedly the most efficient intervention for dyslexia. ![]()
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