Reading Goals and Executive Functions in Adolescents: Three Eye-Tracking Studies on Typical Development and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Successful reading depends not only on decoding and linguistic comprehension but also on the use of strategies that enable readers to actively interact with the text and adapt to task demands. This study examined how reading behaviour adjusts to specific reading goals and the role of executive functions in this adaptation across three groups of adolescents: 28 typically developing students (Study 1), 25 with ADHD (Study 2), and 19 with ASD (Study 3). The results showed that explicit reading goals enhanced strategic processing in all three groups, with a more specific impact in adolescents with ADHD and ASD, and that planning was the key executive function associated with this adaptation. These findings suggest that educational interventions explicit reading goals may improve comprehension, although their effectiveness depends on students’ planning ability: a compensatory factor in typical readers and a prerequisite in those with ADHD or ASD.