As is the case with many toddlers, Michael Thieme’s early spoken language was quirky. He called his older brother William „Illiam,“ for example. „He couldn’t get his W’s out,“ his mother, Annette Thieme, said. Unlike most, Michael had speech problems that persisted into kindergarten, putting him at risk for the reading difficulty known as dyslexia. Michael’s parents didn’t stop at speech therapy. They also enrolled both sons in a five-year study at the University of Denver to uncover why early speech and language problems so often lead to dyslexia. The study, which just ended, showed a genetic link between early speech problems and later dyslexia. Both problems showed up in the same genetic regions, said DU psychologist Bruce Pennington.
Kategorie: Dyslexia
A year after scientists discovered a gene whose flaw contributes to dyslexia, scientists have identified two more such genes.
The findings strongly support the idea that many people deemed lazy or stupid because of severe reading problems may have a genetic disorder that interfered with the connections in their brains before birth.
Dr Albert Galaburda of the Harvard Medical School, an authority on developmental disorders who was not involved in the latest discoveries, said the combined findings meant that, for the first time, „we have a link between genes, brain development and a complex behavioural syndrome“.
A genetic test for dyslexia should be available within a year or less, researchers into the condition said. Children in families that have a history of the disorder could be tested before they started learning to read. If children were carrying a genetic risk of dyslexia they could be put in early intervention programs.
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Gene May Be Linked To Dyslexia
Researchers have found a gene that may be linked to dyslexia, a reading disability that affects millions of children and adults.
The gene is called „DCDC2.“ Scientists have found a gap in that gene in about 17 percent to 20 percent of people with dyslexia who were studied.
„The message is really crystal clear,“ researcher Jeffrey Gruen, MD, tells WebMD.
„We confirmed yet again that dyslexia is genetic,“ says Gruen. He’s an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Yale Child Health Research Center at Yale University’s medical school.