The development of eye-movement control for passage reading in elementary school children

Children need to quickly move their eyes across a page when they read. Research with adults has suggested that the eye movements readers made during passage reading (PREMs) represent skills that lead to better reading outcomes. Some work with children has linked longer looking times with weaker word-level skills. However, these studies do not test enough PREMs and skills to fully understand how PREMs link to outcomes. Critically, no research has looked at how children develop PREMs. Four studies in this dissertation more thoroughly uncover the skills that PREMs represent and the ways in which children may develop PREMs. All the data came from a large developmental project, called Growing Words. The first study uncovered the word and language skills that relate to children s PREMs. The second study asked whether these skills are easier to detect when children read words and sentences that are difficult to understand. The third study investigated whether children make PREMs because they struggle to read or need help with reading when the passages are hard to understand. The fourth study looked at the reasons why PREMs develop across three years of data from the large developmental project. Across studies, word-level skills are primarily linked to PREM behavior. Importantly, PREMs reveal a set of behaviors important to reading, independent of word reading and language. Children also use PREMs to handle reading challenges. In short, these findings are important for understanding how children learn to read and for supporting their reading development.