A Preliminary Study of the Eye-Gaze Patterns and Reading Comprehension Skill of Students on the Autism Spectrum

Objectives To identify, using eye-tracking technology, if readers on the autism spectrum (AS) would exhibit longer mean fixation times during question-answering but similar levels of comprehension accuracy to typically developing (TD) individuals. Methods The eye-gaze behavior of two school-aged autistic children and two TD children with similar reading abilities, age, gender, and grade level, was tracked while they read age-appropriate passages and answered related comprehension questions. Results Both participants on the AS displayed longer mean fixations than TD participants during question-answering. Despite the longer fixations during question-answering, the accuracy of the participants on the AS was equal to or superior to those of the TD participants. Conclusions Longer mean fixation durations during question-answering did not result in lower reading comprehension scores.