Attentional mechanisms and reading abilities in primary school children

The development of reading skills is a fundamental cognitive process in childhood. It relies not only on phonological processing and decoding, but also on the interaction between domain-general cognitive mechanisms, such as working memory, executive functions, and attention. The aim of this experimental study is to investigate the relationship between reading skills (speed and accuracy) and attentional mechanisms in primary school children. Using a group-comparison study, we compared the cognitive profiles of typically developing children with those exhibiting reading difficulties. Participants completed a battery of eleven neuropsychological tests (currently under validation) designed to assess multiple functions, including visuospatial and auditory-verbal short-term memory, visual attention span (VAS), rapid automatized naming, and dual-task performance, as well as core academic skills like mathematical abilities and reading of words and nonwords. We compared the performance of the two reading groups on the visual attention span task in two attentional conditions (focused and distributed) and three stimulus eccentricities (peripheral, maximum-crowding, parafoveal) and found a modest association between reading ability and visuospatial task performance, even though the cross-sectional design precludes causal conclusions. We found that poor readers were slower and made more reading errors than typical readers, and typical readers also showed higher overall VAS accuracy. By clarifying the contribution of attentional mechanisms to reading development, this study aims to enhance our understanding of the neuropsychological processes underlying literacy acquisition and provide evidence-based criteria for the early identification of children at risk for reading difficulties.