Beyond genes: A systematic review of environmental risk factors in specific reading disorder.
Low birth weight, early birth, poverty, and few books at home are the clearest non-genetic paths to reading disorder.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Mascheretti et al. (2018) hunted for non-genetic things that raise the odds of reading disorder.
They screened every paper they could find and kept only the best.
In the end they could say which risks are solid and which are still guess-work.
What they found
Four risks stood out every time: being born early, being born small, growing up poor, and having few books at home.
Other ideas—like heavy metals or mom’s stress—had weaker or mixed proof.
How this fits with other research
Huang et al. (2024) followed thousands of low-birth-weight kids and saw the same link: small babies faced more learning trouble later.
Rosa et al. (2016) and Pinborough-Zimmerman et al. (2011) also show low income raises odds of ADHD and ASD, not just reading problems.
Modabbernia et al. (2016) looked at birth emergencies and found big jumps in intellectual disability.
Together these papers draw one map: early birth and poverty hit many neurodevelopmental outcomes, reading included.
Why it matters
When you see a child born early or light, flag them for reading screens even before school.
Ask about books in the home and library visits—cheap fixes that may lower risk.
Share this list with pediatricians so they refer sooner; early phonics and rich print at home can shrink the gap before it widens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: While an understanding of the genetic contributions to specific reading disorder (RD) is emerging, there is no agreement about which putative hazard factors are clearly involved in the aetiology of this disorder. AIMS: A literature review looking at the impact of environmental risk variables implicated in RD either per se or when interacting with the genes. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: We performed a systematic literature review using the following keywords: dyslexia OR reading disability AND environmental risk factors OR environmental hazard factors, in the following electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus and PsycINFO, without any time restrictions. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Gestational weeks and birth weight are among the pre- and peri-natal risk factors shown to reliably predict reading readiness and the odds of having RD. Inconclusive findings have been reported for maternal cigarette smoking, family history of psychiatric and medical diseases, and risk of miscarriage. A broad definition of familial socio-economic status and home literacy environment have been identified as good life-long risk predictors of reading skills. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: We highlighted the need to consider environmental hazards, their interactions and interactions with RD-candidate genes in the study of the aetiology of RD in order to provide much-needed insight into how these variables influence reading skills.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2018 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2018.03.005