comparing-sentence-observation-ratios-during-reading-writing-japanese

Comparing Sentence Observation Ratios During Reading and Writing in Japanese Students with Handwriting Difficulties

Students with handwriting difficulties (HD) often show visual-motor challenges that affect sentence writing. However, few studies have compared the eye ...

Waseda University

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and learning disabilities (LDs) often experience reading difficulties. In particular, reading long passages can cause comprehension problems. We examined whether 8 Japanese students with ASD, 7 students with LDs, and 13 typically developing (TD) students improved their reading comprehension through two types of repeated reading training: whole-sentence-unit reading (WSUR) training and segment-unit reading (SUR) training. Participants undergoing WSUR training read whole sentences repeatedly. In SUR training, they repeatedly read a segment of a sentence in its correct spatial location. Results indicated that students with ASD and LDs showed greater improvement in reading comprehension after SUR training than after WSUR training, whereas both procedures were equally effective for TD students. Moreover, students with ASD showed only negligible reading comprehension improvements, whereas students with LDs showed intermediate improvements after WSUR training. These results suggest that sequentially presenting word segments can improve the reading comprehension of students with ASD and specific LDs.

Segment-Unit Reading Comprehension Training for Japanese Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Learning Disabilities.

Acquiring triadic social interactions could facilitate language and communication skills in early infancy. However, studies have rarely investigated polynomial relationships, defined as relationships among the self, two or more people, and objects. During the development from a child to an adult, the responsiveness to a preferred stimulus modality changes from visual to auditory dominance. Nevertheless, how people observe compound visual stimuli in polynomial social relationships and why it is difficult to ignore auditory cues remain unclear. Moreover, there is a need to identify differences between children's and adults' observing latencies in the time to the first fixation when detecting a stimulus. This study examined whether participants (24 adults and 19 children) demonstrated similar gaze patterns under triadic and polyadic conditions. The participants observed a target visual stimulus looked at by a face stimulus while we presented spoken names, either congruent or incongruent with the target visual stimulus. The results indicated that when the number of people in social relationships increased, children and adults decreased fixations on the target face and the stimulus and showed a shorter mean fixation duration on the face. Moreover, children had longer latencies and more fixation errors for the target stimulus, which might reflect children's difficulties in communicating with others. We expect that understanding children's communication transition from triadic to polynomial social relationships with audio-visual stimulus congruencies would facilitate understanding language development and social communication patterns.

Why is it difficult for children and adults to follow a person's eye gaze in polynomial social relationships with compound audio-visual stimuli: An eye-tracking study.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRB). Previous studies have shown that children with ASD prefer observing repetitive movements over random movements, reflecting RRB symptoms, but the developmental timeline of this preference remains unclear. New evidence suggests that children with ASD may develop predictive processing abilities for repeated behaviors, providing insight into how they recognize and respond to predictable patterns. This study employed a preferential-looking paradigm to examine whether children with potential ASD demonstrated longer observation durations for predictable movements compared to typically developing (TD) children. Participants were presented with pairs of stimuli featuring predictable and unpredictable movements, which they freely observed side-by-side. Results showed that children with potential ASD spent significantly more time observing predictable movements, particularly during the latter part of the stimulus presentation. These findings suggest that a gradual increase in attention to predictable movements may reflect difficulties in learning cause-and-effect relationships between movement trajectories and the anticipation of complete shapes. This study highlights the potential utility of predictable movement stimuli as a behavioral marker for early ASD screening. It underscores the essential need for further research into predictive processing in children with ASD.

Article	Year
Segment-Unit Reading Comprehension Training for Japanese Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Learning Disabilities. Behavior analysis in practice\| PubMed ID: 36457836	2022
Why is it difficult for children and adults to follow a person's eye gaze in polynomial social relationships with compound audio-visual stimuli: An eye-tracking study. PloS one\| PubMed ID: 37527238	2023
Increased observation of predictable visual stimuli in children with potential autism spectrum disorder. Scientific reports\| PubMed ID: 39915673	2025

Mikimasa Omori

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