Colorado Reading Project: Past, Present, and Future

Authors

  • J. C. DeFries
  • R. K. Olson
  • B. F. Pennington
  • S. D. Smith

Abstract

A brief history of the Colorado Reading Project is presented, and results of recent research conducted within its four substantive components (Twin/Family Study, Reading and Language Processes, Epidemiology of Immunological Differences, and Linkage Analysis) are reviewed. Coinvestigators of this NICHD-funded program project have developed a new multiple regression analysis of twin data that provides compelling evidence for a genetic etiology of reading disability; obtained evidence that word recognition deficits are largely due to heritable variation in phonological coding; assessed the validity of an ostensible subtype of reading disability associated with immune disorders; and, conducted linkage analyses that provide evidence for the genetic heterogeneity of reading disability. Initiationofthe Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center will facilitate more searching tests of etiological hypotheses, as well as unique analyses ofmathematics disability. and its comorbidity with reading problems.

Issue

Section

Articles