# Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and Word Reading Fluency in Early School-Aged Children: A Pilot Eye-Tracking Study

## TL;DR

This study explores how quickly children can name letters and digits and how it relates to their eye movements during reading.

## Contribution

The study links RAN performance to mid-stage eye-tracking measures in early readers for the first time.

## Key findings

- Rapid letter and digit naming predicted regression path duration during reading.
- Faster RAN times were associated with shorter regressions from target words.
- Slower RAN performance may indicate difficulties in phonological processing during reading.

## Abstract

Fluent word reading is a key literacy skill, yet the full extent of the oculomotor underpinnings in developing readers remains unknown. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is a useful clinical measure that has been shown to predict word reading fluency. Here we use RAN scores to predict early, mid, and late local stages of word reading as measured by eye tracking in children who are at a critical time in their literacy development. Thirty-three children participated in two RAN tasks (rapid letter naming (RLN) and rapid digit naming (RDN)) and an eye-tracking task, which included sentence-level reading with an embedded target word. The eye-tracking measures of first fixation duration, regression path duration, and total word reading time were used as early, mid, and late local measures, respectively. RLN and RDN significantly predicted only the mid-stage of the reading process (regression path duration). Faster RLN and RDN times were associated with briefer regressions from target words. Preliminary results link behavioral RAN performance to a mid-stage oculomotor variable, indicating that children with slower RAN times may exhibit longer regressions during reading, suggesting possible difficulties with the integration of phonological processing skills.