Eye-movement patterns in disabled readers at two age levels: a test of Bakker's balance model

The eye-movement patterns of good and poor readers at two age levels during slide-presented reading, arithmetic and perceptual-closure tasks were compared. Older dyslexics were deficient in reading and arithmetic, but performed well on perceptual-closure tasks. Younger dyslexics were deficient on all tasks. Both younger good readers and older poor readers appeared to use a right-hemispheric reading strategy, while older dyslexics appeared to show a left-hemispheric approach. Younger dyslexics did not exhibit any strategy at all. Implications for Bakker's balance model of dyslexia and for subtypes research in dyslexia are discussed.