Reading Development in Young Children: Genetic and Environmental Influences

Abstract

The development of reading skills in typical students is commonly described as a rapid growth across early grades of active reading education, with a slowing down of growth as active instruction tapers. This study examined the extent to which genetics and environments influence these growth rates. Participants were 371 twin pairs, aged approximately 6 through 12, from the Western Reserve Reading Project. Development of word-level reading, reading comprehension, and rapid naming was examined using genetically sensitive latent quadratic growth curve modeling. Results confirmed the developmental trajectory described in the phenotypic literature. Furthermore, the same shared environmental influences were related to early reading skills and subsequent growth, but genetic influences on these factors were unique.

A chaotic home environment accounts for the association between respect for rules disposition and reading comprehension: A twin study

“…The heritability of reading comprehension was .53 in this study, which is comparable to the estimates from other similarly aged twin samples (Logan et al, 2013). Beyond genetic factors, when the reading comprehension measure in this study was examined without the measured home environmental variables in the model, there was a significant shared environmental effect.…”

“…Various studies show that genetic differences between children account for much of the differences in their reading comprehension scores in early elementary school (Keenan, Betjemann, Wadsworth, DeFries, & Olson, 2006; Logan et al, 2013; Olson et al, 2011). While there is ample evidence showing genetic influence on the variability in reading comprehension scores, it is not clear whether that genetic variability is accounted for by some of the same genes that are associated with variability in other child-level factors.…”

Why Do Children Differ in Their Development of Reading and Related Skills?

“…They initially measured several reading and related skills in their twin sample at mean age 6 years (similar to the Colorado ILTS mean age at the end of kindergarten), and they retested the twins each year after that out to mean age 12 years (Logan et al, in press). In one of their earlier papers, Petrill et al (2007) examined the etiology and longitudinal stability of early reading, assessed at their first two waves of data.…”

“…These models are able to distinguish the average genetic and environmental etiologies for where children start in reading development, defined as the intercept, and for their subsequent growth patterns across the grades. To date, these models have been applied to longitudinal twin data from Australia, Colorado, and Scandinavia (Christopher et al, 2013; in press), Florida (Hart et al, 2013), the U.K. (Harlaar, Dale, Hayiou-Thomas, & Plomin, 2012), and Ohio (Logan et al, in press; Petrill et al, 2010). The studies vary in exactly how the initial intercept is defined (end of kindergarten, beginning of first grade, or end of first grade), measures employed (word recognition, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling), and modeling assumptions (linear vs. non-linear, correlation of errors).…”

Stichwort – Entwicklungsstörungen schulischer Fertigkeiten

“…Basierend auf molekulargenetischen Studien (Überblick in Carrion-Castillo et al 2013), z. T. in Verbindung mit Untersuchungen zur funktionellen und strukturellen Bildgebung wurden Modelle für die Lesestörung formuliert, die eine genetische Prä-disposition annehmen, die sich auf Veränderungen in einzelnen Gehirnregionen auswirken (Scerri und Schulte-Körne 2010;Logan et al 2013). Zwillingsstudien zeigen eine recht hohe Erblichkeit der Lese-und der Rechtschreibtestleistungen zwischen 50-80 %.…”