Response to early literacy instruction in the United States, Australia, and Scandinavia: A behavioral-genetic analysis

Samuelsson, Stefan; Byrne, Brian; Olson, Richard K.; Hulslander, Jacqueline; Wadsworth, Sally J.; Corley, Robin P.; Willcutt, Erik G.; DeFries, John C.

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2008.03.004

Cited by 85 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…It is conceivable the environmental variation, especially with regards to education practices, might differ considerably from one country to another (e.g. Samuelsson et al 2008). Given this, it is quite remarkable how similar heritability estimates can be.…”

Section: Reading Writing Spelling Grammar and Punctuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Literacy and Numeracy Performance in Australian School Children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9

Grasby

Coventry²,

Byrne

et al. 2016

Behav Genet

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We examined the extent to which genes and the environment contributed to variation in and covariation among reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation, writing, and numeracy in Australian school children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. Heritability was generally high: reading .58-.71 (excepting Grade 5 girls), spelling .68-.78; grammar and punctuation .52-.66, writing .39-.52, and numeracy .39-.79. Boys' performance varied more than girls in spelling and numeracy, and the common environment was a greater influence in girls than boys in Grade 3 numeracy and Grade 5 reading. Independent pathway models showed similar genetic and environmental structures at each grade with approximately one third to one half of the variation in each domain due to genes that influenced all domains. The covariation among the domains was largely mediated by genes. Results suggest substantial uniformity in the environmental factors influencing these academic domains.

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Section: Reading Writing Spelling Grammar and Punctuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Literacy and Numeracy Performance in Australian School Children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9

Grasby

Coventry²,

Byrne

et al. 2016

Behav Genet

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“…For reasons discussed by Byrne et al (2009) andSamuelsson et al (2008), Australian children tended to out perform US children and US children outperformed Scandinavian children from preschool through grade 2. Therefore we standardized scores within country before combining the samples for more powerful statistical analyses, in addition to adjusting scores for sex, age, and age squared, as is customary in behavior genetic analyses (McGue & Bouchard, 1984).…”

Section: Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and environmental influences on prereading skills and early reading and spelling development in the United States, Australia, and Scandinavia

et al. 2006

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Genetic and environmental relations between vocabulary and reading skills were explored longitudinally from preschool through grades 2 and 4. At preschool there were strong sharedenvironment and weak genetic influences on both vocabulary and print knowledge, but substantial differences in their source. Separation of etiology for vocabulary and reading continued for word recognition and decoding through grade 4, but genetic and environmental correlations between vocabulary and reading comprehension approached unity by grade 4, when vocabulary and word recognition accounted for all of the genetic and shared environment influences on reading comprehension.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard Olson, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80303, Richard.Olson@Colorado.EDU. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptSci Stud Read. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 January 12. Much research has shown that individual differences in the development of vocabulary are significantly correlated with individual differences in reading, more strongly so with reading comprehension than with word recognition (Braze, Tabor, Shankweiler, & Mencel, 2007;Nation & Cocksey, 2009;Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). In addition, there is evidence for partial independence in the phenotypic contributions of oral language (including vocabulary) and decoding to reading comprehension as early as the second grade (Kendeou, van den Broek, White, & Lynch, 2009). A fundamental question about these individual differences is the relative influence from genetic and environmental factors on vocabulary, on different reading skills, and on their correlation. Are the same genetic and environmental influences at play for these skills, or are there significant differences in etiology between skills? The present study addresses this question longitudinally through the early stages of reading development by comparing the similarities of identical and fraternal twins beginning in preschool, and subsequently in a follow-up assessment near the end of the grade 2 when children are "learning to read," and then again at the end of grade 4 when children are "reading to learn" (Chall, 1983).The present analyses are based on data from the International Longitudinal Twin Study (ILTS) of early reading development. The ILTS includes samples of identical and same-sex fraternal twins from Australia, Colorado, and Scandinavia. The combined sample currently exceeds 2000 twins who have been tested in preschool. The twins were initially assessed on a broad range of pre-reading skills including letter name knowledge and vocabulary in the preschool year before admission to kindergarten, and before learning to read could interact with those skills. Subsequently the twins were tested on reading and related skills at the end of kindergarten, first, and second grade in all countries, and at the end of fourth grade in the U.S. sample. Vocabulary was assessed in preschool and again at the end of grades 2 and 4.In the present stud...

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“…An excellent illustration of the contingent nature of heritability derives from a multinational twin study of reading achievement. 11 In this study, by Stefan Samuelsson and colleagues, the heritability of reading achievement among kindergartners was estimated to be .84, .68, and .33 in Australia, the United States, and Sweden, respectively. The corresponding estimates for the shared environmental effect were .09, .25, and .52.…”

Section: Two-group Model Of Intellectual Disabilitymentioning

confidence: 85%

Classical and Molecular Genetic Research on General Cognitive Ability

Gottesman

2015

Hastings Center Report

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Arguably, no psychological variable has received more attention from behavioral geneticists than what has been called “general cognitive ability” (as well as “general intelligence” or “g”), and for good reason. GCA has a rich correlational network, implying that it may play an important role in multiple domains of functioning. GCA is highly correlated with various indicators of educational attainment, yet its predictive utility is not limited to academic achievement. It is also correlated with work performance, navigating the complexities of everyday life, the absence of various social pathologies (such as criminal convictions), and even health and mortality. Although the causal basis for these associations is not always known, it is nonetheless the case that research on GCA has the potential to provide insights into the origins of a wide range of important social outcomes. In this essay, our discussion of why GCA is considered a fundamentally important dimension of behavior on which humans differ is followed by a look at behavioral genetics research on CGA. We summarize behavioral genetics research that has sought to identify and quantify the total contributions of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in GCA as well as molecular genetic research that has sought to identify genetic variants that underlie inherited effects.

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Response to early literacy instruction in the United States, Australia, and Scandinavia: A behavioral-genetic analysis

Cited by 85 publications

References 19 publications

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Literacy and Numeracy Performance in Australian School Children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Literacy and Numeracy Performance in Australian School Children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9

Genetic and environmental influences on prereading skills and early reading and spelling development in the United States, Australia, and Scandinavia

Classical and Molecular Genetic Research on General Cognitive Ability

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