ERIC Number: EJ1142535
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jun
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
The Genetic Architecture of Oral Language, Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study from 7 to 16 Years
Tosto, Maria G.; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Harlaar, Nicole; Prom-Wormley, Elizabeth; Dale, Philip S.; Plomin, Robert
Developmental Psychology, v53 n6 p1115-1129 Jun 2017
This study examines the genetic and environmental etiology underlying the development of oral language and reading skills, and the relationship between them, over a long period of developmental time spanning middle childhood and adolescence. It focuses particularly on the differential relationship between language and two different aspects of reading: reading fluency and reading comprehension. Structural equation models were applied to language and reading data at 7, 12, and 16 years from the large-scale TEDS twin study. A series of multivariate twin models show a clear patterning of oral language with reading comprehension, as distinct from reading fluency: significant but moderate genetic overlap between oral language and reading fluency (genetic correlation r[subscript g] = 0.46-0.58 at 7, 12, and 16) contrasts with very substantial genetic overlap between oral language and reading comprehension (r[subscript g] = 0.81-0.87, at 12 and 16). This pattern is even clearer in a latent factors model, fit to the data aggregated across ages, in which a single factor representing oral language and reading comprehension is correlated with--but distinct from--a second factor representing reading fluency. A distinction between oral language and reading fluency is also apparent in different developmental trajectories: While the heritability of oral language increases over the period from 7 to 12 to 16 years (from h[superscript 2] = 0.27 to 0.47 to 0.55), the heritability of reading fluency is high and largely stable over the same period of time (h[superscript 2] = 0.73 to 0.71 to 0.64).
Descriptors: Twins, Genetics, Reading Fluency, Structural Equation Models, Multivariate Analysis, Reading Comprehension, Correlation, Oral Language, Environmental Influences, Children, Adolescents, Longitudinal Studies, Age Differences, Foreign Countries, Intelligence Tests, Vocabulary Development, Semantics, Pragmatics, Syntax, Achievement Tests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children; Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement; Peabody Individual Achievement Test
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A