Current Paediatrics
Volume 12, Issue 5 , Pages 419-424, October 2002

Genetics and the development of language disabilities and abilities

  • Robert Plomin

      Affiliations

    • Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, 111 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF, UK
    • ,
  • Essi Colledge

      Affiliations

    • Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, 111 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF, UK
    • ,
  • Philip S. Dale

      Affiliations

    • Department of Communication Science and Disorders, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

Abstract 

Genetic research has been slow to come to the field of language development, but during the past decade it has begun to make up for lost time. Research suggests that language disabilities in children are among the most highly heritable disorders, fuelling optimism for finding specific genes. Research has gone beyond merely demonstrating heritability in three ways. First, there are strong genetic links between language disabilities and abilities: what we see as language problems may be the extremes of dimensions (abilities) rather than aetiologically distinct disorders (disabilities). Second, multivariate genetic research suggests that about half of the genetic effects on language disability overlap with non-verbal cognitive disability and about half of the genetic effects are specific, providing support for non-specific language impairment as well as for specific language impairment. Third, specific genes are being identified which will be used to address such issues with much greater precision.

Keywords: language, genetics, twins, DNA, co-morbidity

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  • f1 Correspondence to: RP. Tel.: +44-20-7848-0894; Fax: +44-20-7848-0895; E-mail: r.plomin@iop.kcl.ac.uk

PII: S0957-5839(02)90320-9

doi:10.1054/cupe.2002.0320

Current Paediatrics
Volume 12, Issue 5 , Pages 419-424, October 2002

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