Abstract
Reading disability (dyslexia) is a major social, educational, and mental health problem. Although estimates of prevalence vary, up to 10–15% of school-age children have severe reading deficits in spite of average intelligence and adequate educationalopportunity1. That reading disability may have aconstitutional basis has long been recognized2, and results of twin and family studies suggest that one or more of its forms may be heritable3,4; however, definitive evidence for a genetic aetiology has not been reported. Establishing a heritable basis for reading disability could suggestpossible causes, give improved risk estimates, facilitate early diagnosis, and provide validity tests for ostensible subtypes. In this report, we apply a recently developed multiple regression analysis5,6 to data collected from a sample of 64 pairs of identical twins and 55 pairs of fraternal twins, in which at least one member of the pair is reading disabled, and present evidence for a significant genetic aetiology.
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DeFries, J., Fulker, D. & LaBuda, M. Evidence for a genetic aetiology in reading disability of twins. Nature 329, 537–539 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/329537a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/329537a0
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