New Research: Small screen E-readers and dyslexia

Figure 2. Sample stimuli comparing paper and iPod conditions.
Figure 2. Sample stimuli comparing paper and iPod conditions.

A new study support the use of tablets and other e-reading devices for dyslexic high school students.  Researchers found that the students experienced significant reading gains in speed and comprehension when using an iPod.configured to display only a few words of text per line.  The students who had  the greatest difficulty with phoneme decoding or efficient sight word reading read more rapidly, and students with limited visual attention spans gained in comprehension. Based on previous eye tracking studies , the researchers believe that reading improvement improves because of the shorter lines of text.

Citation:   Schneps MH, Thomson JM, Chen C, Sonnert G, Pomplun M (2013) E-Readers Are More Effective than Paper for Some with Dyslexia. PLoS ONE 8(9): e75634.