Despite all of technology’s advances and the many data dashboards
available to track classroom performance, screening children for dyslexia is
still typically conducted using paper tests, whose evaluation can fall prey to
subjectivity on the part of teachers.
Lexplore, a Swedish company operating in the U.S. out of
Naperville, IL, hopes to employ eye-tracking cameras on computers with
artificial intelligence and special algorithms to identify more students with
dyslexia who might be missed by the current outmoded, time-consuming method.
The company’s tools analyze patterns in how a subject’s eyes
follow words in sequential or nonsequential order as they read. Those at high
risk for dyslexia make more right-to-left movements—vs. the more normal
left-to-right—and take fewer or no regular pauses during reading.
Although its tech and algorithms are new, Lexplore’s
underlying ideas draw on research dating back for decades that indicates
tracking eye movements is one of the best ways to gauge reading ability. A 2015 study built a statistical model using eye-tracking that could identify dyslexia
with more than 80% accuracy.
Two
of Lexplore’s co-founders published their own study in 2016 that claimed an
even higher success rate of 95.3% using their own technology, which is now in
use across the city of Stockholm’s municipal education board.
In
the U.S., Lexplore is still fine-tuning its business model and has so far only
been tested in a handful of private schools in the Atlanta area.