Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center

Authors

  • J. C. DeFries
  • P. A. Filipek
  • D.W. Fulker
  • R.K. Olson
  • B.F. Pennington
  • S.D. Smith
  • B.W. Wise

Abstract

A brief history of the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center is presented, and results obtained from its six research projects (Psychometric Assessmentffwin Study; Reading and Language Processes; Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Executive Functions; Linkage Analysis and Physical Mapping; Computer-based Remediation of Reading Disabilities; and Brain Morphometry in ReadingDisabled Twins) are reviewed. To date, co-investigators of thisNICHD-funded research center have developednew methods for analyzing twin data that provide compelling evidence for a genetic etiology ofreading disability and its co-morbidity with mathematics disability; obtained evidence that word recognition deficits are due to heritable variation in both phonological and orthographic coding; begun to assess the relationship between ADHD and reading disability; reported evidence for a quantitative trait locus for reading disability in a small region on chromosome 6; undertaken studies of computer-based remediation in children with deficits in phoneme awareness, word decoding and reading comprehension; and initiated a study of brain structure in twins with reading disability. During the next five-year period, we shall conduct more searching tests of hypotheses concerning the genetic and environmental etiologies of reading deficits and ADHD, as well as their covariation with measures of reading and language processes, mathematics performance, executive functions and brain morphometry.

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Articles