| Sumario: | Background: Mind wandering—that is, a shift in the contents of thought away from an ongoing task—can have detrimental consequences for students' reading comprehension. To date, no evidence is available on the effects of text‐to‐speech solutions on rates of mind wandering during reading. Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the effects of text‐to‐speech technology on frequency of mind wandering and reading comprehension in young students with dyslexia (20) and typical development (50). Methods: Students were presented, on a personal computer, texts and comprehension questions in two modalities: self‐paced silent reading and text‐to‐speech reading. Comprehension scores and mind wandering occurrence were considered. A battery of cognitive tasks and questionnaires on mind wandering and emotional traits was also included. Results: There were no differences in baseline rates of mind wandering between the two groups. In the text‐to‐speech condition, both groups showed better reading comprehension and reduced rates of mind wandering. Students with dyslexia were significantly more on task in the text‐to‐speech condition compared to the self‐paced reading condition. Implications: These results suggest that text‐to‐speech might represent a reading solution that allows students with Dyslexia to diminish mind wandering during text‐to‐speech reading. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Mind wandering has negative consequences for students' reading comprehensionStudents with dyslexia may engage in mind wandering while reading with negative effects for text comprehension.Text‐to‐speech software can help students with dyslexia achieve better text comprehension performance. What this paper adds: To date, no evidence is available on the use of text‐to‐speech software to reduce mind wandering.This study documents that text‐to‐speech might reduce mind wandering in students with dyslexia.Both students with dyslexia and typical readers achieved better reading comprehension and reduced mind wandering when supported by text‐to‐speech software. Implications for practice and/or policy: Text‐to‐speech may be a valid solution to promote on task behaviours for students with dyslexia.Text‐to‐speech software might be proposed to all students to read long/difficult texts or when presenting low levels of motivation.
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