BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Lang. Sci.

Sec. Reading

Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/flang.2025.1508098

Effect of overlay but not electronic blue filters on reading time and eye movements of children with developmental dyslexia

Provisionally accepted
José  A BarelaJosé A Barela1*Rafaela  C MazzolaniRafaela C Mazzolani1Isabela  H GarretIsabela H Garret1Ana Maria  F BarelaAna Maria F Barela2Michel  A HospitalMichel A Hospital3Gabriella  A FigueiredoGabriella A Figueiredo1
  • 1Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Campus Rio Claro, Rio Claro, Brazil
  • 2Institute of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, Cruzeiro do Sul University, São Paulo, Brazil
  • 3Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study aimed to examine the effects of colored blue electronic and overlay filters on reading time and eye movements of children with and without dyslexia. Children with (n=15, 11.1±1.6 years old) and without dyslexia (n=15, 10.6±1.7 years old) seated on a chair, with their heads stabilized by a forehead and chin support. They read different texts shown on a 14-inch laptop screen with no filter, blue electronic filter, and blue overlay filter. Eye movements were recorded using an eye-tracking system (ETG 2.0 -SMI), and the total reading time duration, number and duration of fixation, and number and duration of saccades were obtained. Children with dyslexia showed longer reading durations and higher numbers of both fixations and saccades. In addition, they read faster with the blue overlay filter compared with the other conditions. Furthermore, the blue overlay filter reduced the fixation duration and increased the saccade duration. These results show that a blue overlay filter improves reading time in children with dyslexia owing to changes in eye movement patterns.

Keywords: color tinted filter, EYE MOVEMENT, reading fluency, electronic filter, Dyslexia

Received: 04 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Barela, Mazzolani, Garret, Barela, Hospital and Figueiredo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: José A Barela, Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Campus Rio Claro, Rio Claro, Brazil

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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