File(s) not publicly available
Genetic influences on specific versus nonspecific language impairment in 4-year-old twins
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 14:32 authored by Marianna E Hayiou-Thomas, Bonamy Oliver, Robert PlominThe present study addresses the distinction between specific (SLI) and nonspecific (NLI) language impairment at an etiological level by estimating the relative genetic and environmental contributions to language impairment in children with SLI and NLI. Drawing on a large longitudinal twin study, we tested a sample of 356 four-and-a-half-year-old children with low language ability and their twin partners at home on a range of language and nonverbal measures. For children whose language and nonverbal abilities were both low (NLI), genetic influence on language impairment was moderate and shared environmental influence was substantial. A similar pattern emerged for children whose language difficulties occurred in apparent isolation (SLI), although there was a trend for the genetic effects to be smaller for SLI than for NLI: Group heritability was .18 for SLI and .52 for NLI. Probandwise cross-concordances were suggestive of some genetic overlap between these two groups, but not with a subgroup of children with more severe cognitive delay.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Journal of learning disabilitiesISSN
0022-2194Publisher
Sage PublicationsExternal DOI
Issue
3Volume
38Page range
222-232Department affiliated with
- Psychology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2013-03-05Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC