Eye-Tracking in Reading Research: A Systematic Review of Studies With Children of Varying Reading Ability

Eye-tracking has become a cornerstone of modern reading research, offering a window into the real-time cognitive and linguistic processes that underpin literacy. By measuring metrics such as fixation duration, saccadic amplitude, and regressions, researchers can observe how children navigate text and where they encounter processing bottlenecks. This systematic review synthesizes 15 years of empirical literature (2008–2023) to map how these methods are applied across diverse reader profiles, including typically developing children (TDC) and those with reading difficulties (RD) or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The review identifies a clear divergence in research focus based on participant ability. Studies involving typically developing children often utilize sentence or text-level stimuli to investigate vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension strategies. In contrast, research on children with reading difficulties frequently centers on single-unit processing, such as letters or isolated words, to isolate deficits in decoding and rapid symbol naming. This distinction reflects the different theoretical goals of each field: TDC research often tests models of skilled reading development, while RD research seeks to identify the specific cognitive precursors—such as phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming—that fail to develop in struggling readers.

A significant finding of this review is the high degree of methodological heterogeneity across the 73 included studies. Variations in eye-tracking hardware, sampling rates, calibration procedures (ranging from 3-point to 25-point), and stimulus presentation make it difficult to compare findings across different labs and languages. The authors argue that the field lacks a unified set of reporting standards. To improve reproducibility and the reliability of future findings, the paper provides empirically derived guidelines for reporting participant demographics, technical equipment specifications, and experimental design protocols.