The Effect of a Specialized Dyslexia Arabic Font, Arabolexia, on Reading Performance of Children with Dyslexia

Abstract

: Dyslexia-friendly fronts have gained interest thanks to their potential advantages on the reading performance of dyslexic children. Most studies, however, were done on Latin-based languages, such as English. Studies investigating the reading performance of people with dyslexia in languages with different writing systems, such as Arabic, remain scarce. Arabolexia, a font developed for dyslexic Arabic speakers, has demonstrated a facilitatory effect on the reading of children with dyslexia. Yet, the features contributing to these advantages have not been empirically studied. The current study examines the elements of Arabolexia —such as letterform, spacing, and font size —that might improve reading. We compared the reading performance of dyslexic children (n=45, mean age = 11.10 years) using texts in both Arabolexia and Simplified Arabic font, a widely used standard font, under four conditions: default Arabolexia, Simplified Arabic with matched font size only, Simplified Arabic with matched spacing only, and Simplified Arabic over-all matching. The results show that Arabolexia’s advantages disappear when Simplified Arabic is adjusted to match its spacing. These findings suggest that the facilitatory effect of Arabolexia stems from its spacing parameters rather than its unique design.