Grammar Clinical Marker Yields Substantial Heritability for Language Impairments in 16-Year-Old Twins

Dale, Philip S.; Rice, Mabel L.; Rimfeld, Kaili; Hayiou‐Thomas, Marianna E.

doi:10.1044/2017_jslhr-l-16-0364

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…At the same time, the TEGI phenotype is the only one benchmarked to a technical requirement of the grammar that is not explicitly taught to children, and the phenotype performance can be interpreted as progress toward the obligatory requirements of the adult grammar. This phenotype consistently yields substantial heritability estimates in each previous study in which it has been evaluated (Dale et al, 2018;Rice et al, 2014Rice et al, , 2018, an outcome replicated in this study. The ways in which inherited influences affect language acquisition remain to be identified.…”

Section: Implications For Causal Pathwayssupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Speech impairments show higher heritability than language impairments in a study of children at 4.5 years of age (0.56 vs. 0.34) using a latent trait method of estimation (Hayiou-Thomas et al, 2006). A grammar phenotype yields substantial heritability at 16 years of age (Dale et al, 2018).…”

Section: Heritability Of Speech and Language In Contemporary Twin Studiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In recent populationbased studies of the language of twins, such as the important Twins' Early Development Study (TEDS; Oliver & Plomin, 2007), the phenotypes were not benchmarked to standardized normative performance expectations for the general population. Instead, the measures were short-form versions of standardized assessments that provided percentile ranks within the twin sample, which provided classification of low performance (Dale et al, 2018;Hayiou-Thomas et al, 2014). A further limitation of previous studies is possible zygosity effects in language acquisition were not noted.…”

Section: Twinning Effects On Language Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heritability of Specific Language Impairment and Nonspecific Language Impairment at Ages 4 and 6 Years Across Phenotypes of Speech, Language, and Nonverbal Cognition

Rice

Taylor

Zubrick

et al. 2020

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose Early language and speech acquisition can be delayed in twin children, a twinning effect that diminishes between 4 and 6 years of age in a population-based sample. The purposes of this study were to examine how twinning effects influence the identification of children with language impairments at 4 and 6 years of age, comparing children with specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment (NLI); the likelihood that affectedness will be shared within monozygotic versus dizygotic twin pairs; and estimated levels of heritability for SLI and NLI. Twinning effects are predicted to result in elevated rates of language impairments in twins. Method The population-based twin sample included 1,354 children from 677 twin pairs, 214 monozygotic and 463 dizygotic, enrolled in a longitudinal study. Nine phenotypes from the same comprehensive direct behavioral assessment protocol were investigated at 4 and 6 years of age. Twinning effects were estimated for each phenotype at each age using structural equation models estimated via diagonally weighted least squares. Heritabilities were calculated for SLI and NLI. Results As predicted, the twinning effect increased the percentage of affected children in both groups across multiple language phenotypes, an effect that diminished with age yet was still not aligned to singleton age peers. Substantial heritability estimates replicated across language phenotypes and increased with age, even with the most lenient definition of affectedness, at −1 SD . Patterns of outcomes differed between SLI and NLI groups. Conclusions Nonverbal IQ is not on the same causal pathway as language impairments. Twinning effects on language acquisition affect classification of 4- and 6-year-old children as SLI and NLI, and heritability is most consistent in the SLI group. Clinical practice requires monitoring language acquisition of twins to avoid misdiagnosis when young or a missed diagnosis of language impairments at school entry.

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Section: Implications For Causal Pathwayssupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Heritability Of Speech and Language In Contemporary Twin Studiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Twinning Effects On Language Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heritability of Specific Language Impairment and Nonspecific Language Impairment at Ages 4 and 6 Years Across Phenotypes of Speech, Language, and Nonverbal Cognition

Rice

Taylor

Zubrick

et al. 2020

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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“…Heritability for Language Impairments in 16-Year-Old Twins Convergent outcomes were reported in a recent study of twins at 16 years of age (Dale et al, 2018). The twin sample for this study was part of the TEDS, a populationbased longitudinal study of language, cognition, and behavior problems from childhood through adolescence (Oliver & Plomin, 2007).…”

Section: Grammar Clinical Marker Yields Highmentioning

confidence: 83%

Causal Pathways for Specific Language Impairment: Lessons From Studies of Twins

Rice

2020

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose This review article summarizes a program of longitudinal investigation of twins' language acquisition with a focus on causal pathways for specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment in children at 4 and 6 years with known history at 2 years. Method The context of the overview is established by legacy scientific papers in genetics, language, and SLI. Five recent studies of twins are summarized, from 2 to 16 years of age, with a longitudinal perspective of heritability over multiple speech, language, and cognitive phenotypes. Results Replicated moderate-to-high heritability is reported across ages, phenotypes, full population estimates, and estimates for clinical groups. Key outcomes are documentation of a twinning effect of risk for late language acquisition in twins that persists through 6 years of age, greater for monozygotic than dizygotic twins (although zygosity effects disappear at 6 years); heritability is greater for grammar and morphosyntax than other linguistic dimensions, from age 2 years through age 16 years, replicated within twin samples at subsequent age levels and across twin samples at age 16 years. Conclusion There is consistent support for legacy models of genetic influences on language acquisition, updated with a more precise growth signaling disruption model supported by twin data, as well as singleton data of children with SLI and nonspecific language impairment. Presentation Video https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13063727

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“…Length and complexity of children's utterances in conversation, usually computed as the mean number of morphemes in utterances sampled 0.17-0.61 Dale et al, 2018;DeThorne et al, 2012…”

Section: Conversational Language Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) Framework for Understanding Musicality-Language Links Across the Lifespan

Nayak¹,

Coleman²,

Ladányi³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Using individual differences approaches, a growing body of literature finds positive associations between musicality and language-related abilities, complementing prior findings of links between musical training and language skills. Despite these associations, musicality has been often overlooked in mainstream models of individual differences in language acquisition and development. To better understand the biological basis of these individual differences, we propose the Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) framework. This novel integrative framework posits that musical and language-related abilities likely share some common genetic architecture (i.e., genetic pleiotropy) in addition to some degree of overlapping neural endophenotypes, and genetic influences on musically and linguistically enriched environments. We review and discuss findings from over seventy studies in the literature demonstrating that individual differences in musical aptitude (i.e., rhythm and tonality skills) are robustly correlated with a wide range of speech-language skills that are foundational for effective communication, including speech perception, grammatical abilities, reading-related skills, and second/foreign language learning. From this body of work we conclude that musical abilities are intertwined with speech, language, and reading development over the lifespan. Drawing upon recent advances in genomic methodologies for unraveling pleiotropy, we outline testable predictions for future research on language development and how its underlying neurobiological substrates may be supported by genetic pleiotropy with musicality.

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Grammar Clinical Marker Yields Substantial Heritability for Language Impairments in 16-Year-Old Twins

Abstract: The heritability of GJ-20 scores, especially at more extreme cutoffs, along with the score distribution and association with other indicators of language impairments, provides additional evidence for the potential value of this measure as a clinical marker of specific language impairment.

Cited by 14 publications

References 36 publications

Heritability of Specific Language Impairment and Nonspecific Language Impairment at Ages 4 and 6 Years Across Phenotypes of Speech, Language, and Nonverbal Cognition

Heritability of Specific Language Impairment and Nonspecific Language Impairment at Ages 4 and 6 Years Across Phenotypes of Speech, Language, and Nonverbal Cognition

Causal Pathways for Specific Language Impairment: Lessons From Studies of Twins

The Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE) Framework for Understanding Musicality-Language Links Across the Lifespan

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