University of Sussex
Browse

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 Plomin
The 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 disabilities

ISSN

0022-2194

Publisher

Sage Publications

Issue

3

Volume

38

Page range

222-232

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-03-05

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC