Crowding, a neurological phenomenon that impairs peripheral recognition of flanked characters, fundamentally limits the number of letters that can be perceived at a glance [10]. Therefore, in order to read efficiently, attention must be directed to the uncrowded span of text, centered at fixation [54], as the gaze shifts during reading. We suggest that attention deficits associated with dyslexia make this a challenge by disrupting processes needed to maintain attention to the uncrowded span, as fixations advance from one word to the next [1].
Linda Wilson on 07 Sep 12Introduces two new ideas: 1) that teachers need to start to learn to evaluate text complexity. It cannot be determined by a formula alone because a judgement also involves a) understanding what background knowledge and tasks will be required of the reader and b) knowing the student's particular characteristics and needs. 2) the second idea is that we can't just rely on giving low readers simpler texts on the same topic, because they need to learn to read and comprehend more complex texts to prepare for college. So, in some cases, the preference would be to provide scaffolds instead of easier texts.
