Leseschwierigkeiten entschlüsseln: Die Rolle von Augenbewegungen, Benennungsgeschwindigkeit und visueller Verarbeitung bei der Entwicklung der Lese- und Schreibfähigkeit

Purpose. Specific reading difficulties affect approximately 3 – 9 % of school-aged children. Their assessment requires language-specific diagnostic tools. This study aimed to develop and validate reading skill tests in Latvian and to evaluate the interaction between phonological processing, naming speed, and age in reading performance. Material and Methods. A total of 2,258 school-aged children participated, with 640 children (7 – 18 years) completing the full test battery. Reading speed (ORFT) was assessed alongside saccadic eye movements and rapid automatized naming (RAN) using the Developmental Eye Movement Test (DEM). Written language skills were evaluated through single-word identification (VWR) and non-word decoding (VND). Age-related criteria for impaired reading performance were determined using statistical outlier detection. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify predictors of ORFT. Results. Approximately 10 % of participants exhibited reading difficulties. Reading speed was significantly correlated with all reading skill measures (r = 0.76 – 0.84, p < 0.05). Multifactorial regression analysis (R² = 0.77) revealed that ORFT could be predicted by VWR (a), VND, RAN (b), DEM (c), and age (95% CI): ORFT = 0.06 • a + 1.26 • b + 2.84 • c – 0.0048 • J • (a • b • c) – 0.18 Lexical–semantic support enhanced word recognition efficiency by 27 % relative to non-word decoding. Developmental trajectories demonstrated rapid gains in reading fluency up to approximately age 12, followed by a plateau phase beginning in early adolescence. Conclusion. The newly developed Latvian reading skill tests provide a reliable diagnostic framework for evaluating reading performance. Findings confirm the phonological theory of reading difficulty and highlight the combined influence of phonological processing, naming speed, and age on literacy development.