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      Inter-letter spacing, inter-word spacing, and font with dyslexia-friendly features: testing text readability in people with and without dyslexia

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          Abstract

          Over the last years, several studies have suggested a possible link between dyslexia and deficits in low-level visual processing (e.g., excessive crowding). At the same time, specially designed “dyslexia-friendly” fonts appeared on the market. This class of fonts presents two main features: the particular graphic characteristics of the letterform designed to avoid confusion between similarly shaped letters, and wider inter-letter and inter-word spacing to limit crowding. The literature testing the efficacy of “dyslexia-friendly” fonts in improving reading accuracy and increasing reading speed is controversial. We evaluated the impact of letterform (with vs. without dyslexia-friendly graphic features), inter-letter spacing (standard vs. increased), and inter-word spacing (standard vs. increased) on reading accuracy and speed. Two groups of 64 children each, with and without dyslexia, read aloud 8 equivalent texts. The data collected failed to show any effect from the letterform. As regards spacing, the data showed that reading speed is impaired by an increase in inter-letter spacing not combined with an adequate increase in inter-word spacing.

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          The online version of this article (10.1007/s11881-020-00194-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          Predictors of developmental dyslexia in European orthographies with varying complexity.

          Karin Landerl, Franck Ramus, Kristina Moll … (2013)
           The relationship between phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term/working memory (ST/WM) and diagnostic category is investigated in control and dyslexic children, and the extent to which this depends on orthographic complexity. General cognitive, phonological and literacy skills were tested in 1,138 control and 1,114 dyslexic children speaking six different languages spanning a large range of orthographic complexity (Finnish, Hungarian, German, Dutch, French, English). Phoneme deletion and RAN were strong concurrent predictors of developmental dyslexia, while verbal ST/WM and general verbal abilities played a comparatively minor role. In logistic regression models, more participants were classified correctly when orthography was more complex. The impact of phoneme deletion and RAN-digits was stronger in complex than in less complex orthographies. Findings are largely consistent with the literature on predictors of dyslexia and literacy skills, while uniquely demonstrating how orthographic complexity exacerbates some symptoms of dyslexia. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2012 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
          Article 0 comments Cited 125 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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            Developmental dyslexia.

            Jean-François Demonet, Mark Taylor, Yves Chaix (2004)
            Developmental dyslexia, or specific reading disability, is a disorder in which children with normal intelligence and sensory abilities show learning deficits for reading. Substantial evidence has established its biological origin and the preponderance of phonological disorders even though important phenotypic variability and comorbidity have been recorded. Diverse theories have been proposed to account for the cognitive and neurological aspects of dyslexia. Findings of genetic studies show that different loci affect specific reading disability although a direct relation has not been established between symptoms and a given genomic locus. In both children and adults with dyslexia, results of neuroimaging studies suggest defective activity and abnormal connectivity between regions crucial for language functions--eg, the left fusiform gyrus for reading--and changes in brain activity associated with performance improvement after various remedial interventions.
            Article 0 comments Cited 98 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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              How the visual aspects can be crucial in reading acquisition? The intriguing case of crowding and developmental dyslexia.

              Simone Gori, Andrea Facoetti (2015)
              Developmental dyslexia (DD) is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder (about 10% of children across cultures) characterized by severe difficulties in learning to read. According to the dominant view, DD is considered a phonological processing impairment that might be linked to a cross-modal, letter-to-speech sound integration deficit. However, new theories-supported by consistent data-suggest that mild deficits in low-level visual and auditory processing can lead to DD. This evidence supports the probabilistic and multifactorial approach for DD. Among others, an interesting visual deficit that is often associated with DD is excessive visual crowding. Crowding is defined as difficulty in the ability to recognize objects when surrounded by similar items. Crowding, typically observed in peripheral vision, could be modulated by attentional processes. The direct consequence of stronger crowding on reading is the inability to recognize letters when they are surrounded by other letters. This problem directly translates to reading at a slower speed and being more prone to making errors while reading. Our aim is to review the literature supporting the important role of crowding in DD. Moreover, we are interested in proposing new possible studies in order to clarify whether the observed excessive crowding could be a cause rather than an effect of DD. Finally, we also suggest possible remediation and even prevention programs that could be based on reducing the crowding in children with or at risk for DD without involving any phonological or orthographic training.
              Article 0 comments Cited 49 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Paolo Bernardis:
                ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9476-8480
                pbernardis@units.it
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Ann Dyslexia
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Ann Dyslexia
                Title: Annals of Dyslexia
                Publisher: Springer US (New York )
                ISSN (Print): 0736-9387
                ISSN (Electronic): 1934-7243
                Publication date (Electronic): 14 March 2020
                Publication date PMC-release: 14 March 2020
                Publication date (Print): 2020
                Volume: 70
                Issue: 1
                Pages: 141-152
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.5133.4, ISNI 0000 0001 1941 4308, Department of Life Sciences, , University of Trieste, ; Trieste, Italy
                [2 ]GRID grid.16734.37, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 036X, IUAV University of Venice, ; Venice, Italy
                [3 ]CHIALAB, Bologna, Italy
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1883-771X
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7198-4030
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4010-4694
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9476-8480
                Article
                Publisher ID: 194
                DOI: 10.1007/s11881-020-00194-x
                PMC ID: 7188700
                PubMed ID: 32172467
                SO-VID: 89cae6b7-12c9-4f98-8215-f393e4a84402
                Copyright © © The Author(s) 2020
                License:

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                Date received : 2 June 2019
                Date accepted : 3 March 2020
                Categories
                Subject: Article
                Custom metadata
                issue-copyright-statement © The International Dyslexia Association 2020

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurology
                Keywords: dyslexia,easyreading,font,letter spacing,reading
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurology
                Keywords: dyslexia, easyreading, font, letter spacing, reading

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