Developmental dyslexia can be considered as a specific learning disability that is manifested by complications with fluent reading and subsequent reading comprehension (Peterson and Pennington 2012; Roitsch and Watson 2019). Dyslexia is neurobiological of origin and is closely associated with eye movements that differ in the dyslexics from the intact readers, e.g., in longer fixation, a higher number of fixations, and shorter saccades (Rayner, 1998). Dyslexia usually begins to manifest at the start of school when a child first becomes more intensively familiar with text (Gabrieli, 2009). For this reason, it is absolutely crucial that an early and accurate diagnosis of dyslexia is initiated, followed by a precisely targeted intervention that is both engaging for the dyslexic reader and develops core skills to master reading proficiency, which includes the development of reading fluency and subsequent comprehension. We aim to create a comprehensive intervention system called DeveLex (see Author et al., 2024) focused on dyslexia intervention using eye-tracking technology, which can lead to improved dyslexic overall reading performance and enhance the academic and emotional development of the individual. This paper aims to introduce the paired reading task, which is part of the comprehensive [Anonymized] system with the objective of improving dyslexic reading fluency, and to present the results of a pilot study conducted on dyslexic pupils.

This paper has two main objectives: 1) to introduce the paired reading task as an interactive tool for dyslexia intervention using eye-tracking, 2) to present data from a pilot study on dyslexic pupils. The main goal of paired reading task is to increase reading accuracy and fluency and build reading comprehension once the reader has mastered decoding. The main essence of paired reading is simultaneous reading, during which the child receives both auditory (child hears the text being read) and visual (child reads the text itself) input (Reid, 2006). Based on this, the concept of the paired reading task was implemented in the DeveLex system, which is built on eye-movement-based interactivity. The task is divided into X levels, during which the child reads only the words themselves and then progresses to higher levels containing individual sentences and paragraphs of text (with visual aids and in more challenging levels without any visual support). The child is instructed to read the words as they are read to him by the computer. With the help of eye-tracking, the child's gaze is then controlled, and it is also interactive, e.g., the gaze hits a word, and the word is read and highlighted in color. All verbal stimuli are presented in the Czech language and displayed in black font on a light grey background. Due to the high level of gaze-based interactivity, the task itself was developed in several iterations, where the task was tested on adult readers, focusing on the fluency and intuitiveness of each level and the adequacy of the technological implementation. In order to evaluate the gaze-interactive paired reading task, a pilot study will be performed during the spring of 2025, for which 5 dyslexic and 5 intact readers aged 9-10 years (native Czech readers) will be measured. The data collection will be performed in a designated room. An eye-tracking device GazePoint HD with a sampling rate of 120 Hz, an adjustable chair, an external monitor and a chinrest will be used for the measurement. Data collection will include a short semi-structured interview with the participant dedicated to the subjective perception of the task. The data will then be analyzed during the spring of 2025.

The data from the pilot study will be analyzed in two manners: 1) at the so-called diagnostic level, i.e., how the reader interacts with the verbal stimuli themselves, focusing on the linguistic aspects and the way of orientation in the different levels of the paired reading task; 2) analysis of the interactive elements within this task, i.e., how the reader responds to the interactive elements and whether the selected eye-tracking device is applicable for the purpose of this task about its accuracy, precision and sampling rate. In addition to the eye-tracking recordings, a semi-structured interview with the child will be analyzed using open coding to categorize the limitations of this task from the child user's perspective. A dyslexic individual can progress from reading single words to more complex and comprehensive texts. The primary goal of this process is to enhance their self-confidence, improve reading fluency, and strengthen overall text comprehension. This approach can also improve academic performance and support the individual’s overall psychosocial and emotional development.

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