Reading skills in early readers: Genetic and shared environmental influences

Stephen A. Petrill, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Lee Anne Thompson, Laura S. DeThorne, Christopher Schatschneider

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The present study combined parallel data from the Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects (N2CAP) and the Western Reserve Reading Project (WRRP) to examine sibling similarity and quantitative genetic model estimates for measures of reading skills in 272 school-age sibling pairs from three family types (monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, and unrelated adoptive siblings). The study included measures of letter and word identification, phonological awareness, phonological decoding, rapid automatized naming, and general cognitive ability. Estimates of additive generic effects and shared environmental effects were moderate and significant. Furthermore, shared environmental effects estimated in twins were generally similar in magnitude to adoptive sibling correlations, suggesting highly replicable estimates across different study designs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)48-55
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Learning Disabilities
Volume39
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Education
  • General Health Professions

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Reading skills in early readers: Genetic and shared environmental influences'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this