Language impairment and dyslexia genes influence language skills in children with autism spectrum disorders.
Dyslexia-linked genes drag down receptive vocabulary in children with autism, so screen and support listening skills early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at gene variants already tied to dyslexia and language impairment.
They asked whether these same genes shape receptive vocabulary in children with autism.
Kids with ASD gave DNA samples and took a simple word-understanding test.
What they found
Children who carried the dyslexia-linked genes scored lower on receptive vocabulary.
The same genetic risk that hurts reading in typical kids also limits word understanding in autism.
How this fits with other research
Cavalli et al. (2016) seems to disagree. They found university students with dyslexia who had equal or even richer vocabulary depth than peers.
The gap is about age and selection. D et al. studied young children with autism; Eddy studied high-achieving adults. Early risk can fade in bright adults who keep reading.
Nittrouer et al. (2016) add that executive function, not just genes, predicts later play and language growth in verbal preschoolers with ASD. Genes set the stage, but day-to-day skills still matter.
Why it matters
You can’t change genes, but you can act on what they signal. If a child with ASD carries dyslexia-risk variants, probe receptive vocabulary early and often. Build strong listening routines, picture-book dialogues, and auditory discrimination games before decoding is even on the table.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Language and communication development is a complex process influenced by numerous environmental and genetic factors. Many neurodevelopment disorders include deficits in language and communication skills in their diagnostic criteria, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD), language impairment (LI), and dyslexia. These disorders are polygenic and complex with a significant genetic component contributing to each. The similarity of language phenotypes and comorbidity of these disorders suggest that they may share genetic contributors. To test this, we examined the association of genes previously implicated in dyslexia, LI, and/or language-related traits with language skills in children with ASD. We used genetic and language data collected in the Autism Genome Research Exchange (AGRE) and Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) cohorts to perform a meta-analysis on performance on a receptive vocabulary task. There were associations with LI risk gene ATP2C2 and dyslexia risk gene MRPL19. Additionally, we found suggestive evidence of association with CMIP, GCFC2, KIAA0319L, the DYX2 locus (ACOT13, GPLD1, and FAM65B), and DRD2. Our results show that LI and dyslexia genes also contribute to language traits in children with ASD. These associations add to the growing literature of generalist genes that contribute to multiple related neurobehavioral traits. Future studies should examine whether other genetic contributors may be shared among these disorders and how risk variants interact with each other and the environment to modify clinical presentations.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2015 · doi:10.1002/aur.1436