The developmental origins of genetic factors influencing language and literacy: Associations with early‐childhood vocabulary

Verhoef, Ellen; Shapland, Chin Yang; Fisher, Simon E.; Dale, Philip S.; Pourcain, Beaté St

doi:10.1111/jcpp.13327

Cited by 21 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…82.3%(SE=16.1%), VIQ: 66.4%(SE=19.9%), PIQ: 91.8%(SE=15.1%), S9 Table). Finally, there was little evidence for novel genetic factors emerging during mid-childhood (A5, Fig 4), consistent with previous findings (15). Thus, the fitted multivariate models for early-life vocabulary and mid-childhood skills were consistent with both the identified multivariate genetic architecture of early-life vocabulary (Fig 2) and the previously reported amplification of genetic factors for vocabulary at 38 months (15).…”

Section: Analysis Strategysupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Twin studies estimated that genetic influences could account for 17% to 25% of variation in expressive vocabulary at 24 months (11,12), 10% to 14% of variation in expressive vocabulary at 36 months (11) and 28% of variation in receptive vocabulary at 14 months (13). Studies using genotype data from unrelated children provided similar estimates, with single-nucleotide polymorphism heritability (SNP-h 2 ) estimates of 13% to 14% for expressive vocabulary at 15 to 30 months of age (14) and 12% for receptive vocabulary at 38 months of age (15).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Thus, it is likely that the genetic correlation between expressive and receptive vocabulary at 38 months (GSEM-rg=0.82(SE=0.12,Fig 1c)is primarily driven by genetic variance shared with expressive vocabulary at 24 months.Finally, there was little support for the presence of a fourth genetic factor (A4) that would be exclusively related to receptive vocabulary at 38 months(Fig 2, S3Table). However, according to findings from our previous work, such a factor is likely to account only for very little phenotypic variance in receptive vocabulary at 38 months(15). Therefore, it may only become detectable once modelled together with other heritable traits sharing underlying genetic influences.Stage 2: Multivariate genetic variance structures between early-life vocabulary and midchildhood reading, verbal and performance intelligenceIn a second step, we assessed the emergence of genetic links with mid-childhood reading accuracy/comprehension at 7 years, verbal intelligence quotient scores (VIQ) at 8 years and performance intelligence quotient scores (PIQ) at 8 years (S1Table)across the studied vocabulary measures during the first three years of life, using rank-transformed measures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 89%

“…This genetic factor was also shared with both expressive (path coefficient a32:0. Table), corresponding to nearly half of the SNP-h 2 (factorial co-heritability: 47.0%(SE=25.1%), S4 (15). We contrast these verbal abilities with a measure of non-verbal intelligence (PIQ) to evaluate differences in developmental association patterns with respect to early-life vocabulary.…”

Section: Analysis Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…before the age of four years. More specifically, genetic influences underlying receptive vocabulary at 38 months could capture, through amplification, the majority of genetic variation contributing to a wide spectrum of midchildhood/early-adolescent literacy and (verbal) cognitive skills in a sample of unrelated individuals (15).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The developmental genetic architecture of vocabulary skills during the first three years of life: Capturing emerging associations with later-life reading and cognition

Verhoef

Shapland

Fisher

et al. 2020

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Individual differences in early-life vocabulary measures are heritable and associated with subsequent reading and cognitive abilities, although the underlying mechanisms are little understood. Here, we (i) investigate the developmental genetic architecture of expressive and receptive vocabulary in toddlerhood and (ii) assess origin and developmental stage of emerging genetic associations with mid-childhood verbal and non-verbal skills.Studying up to 6,524 unrelated children from the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort, we dissected the phenotypic variance of longitudinally assessed early-life vocabulary measures (15-38 months) and later-life reading and cognitive skills (7-8 years) into genetic and residual components, by fitting multivariate structural equation models to genome-wide genetic-relationship matrices.Our findings show that the genetic architecture of early-life vocabulary is dynamic, involving multiple distinct genetic factors. Two of them are developmentally stable and contribute to genetic variation in mid-childhood skills: Genetic links with later-life verbal abilities (reading, verbal intelligence) emerged with expressive vocabulary at 24 months. The underlying genetic factor explained 10.1% variation (path coefficient: 0.32(SE=0.06)) in early language, but also 6.4% (path coefficient: 0.25(SE=0.12)) and 17.9% (path coefficient: 0.42(SE=0.13)) variation in mid-childhood reading and verbal intelligence, respectively. An independent stable genetic factor was identified for receptive vocabulary at 38 months, explaining 2.1% (path coefficient: 0.15(SE=0.07)) phenotypic variation. This genetic factor was also linked to both verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities in mid-childhood, accounting for 24.7% of the variation in non-verbal intelligence (path coefficient: 0.50(SE=0.08)), 33.0% in reading (path coefficient: 0.57(SE=0.07)) and 36.1% in verbal intelligence (path coefficient: 0.60(0.10)), corresponding to the majority of genetic variance (≥66.4%).Thus, the genetic foundations of mid-childhood reading and cognition are diverse. They involve at least two independent genetic factors that emerge at different developmental stages during early language development and may implicate differences in cognitive processes that are already detectable during toddlerhood.Author summaryDifferences in the number of words young children produce (expressive vocabulary) and understand (receptive vocabulary) can be partially explained by genetic factors, and are related to reading and cognitive abilities later in life. Here, we studied genetic influences underlying word production and understanding during early development (15-38 months) and their genetic relationship with mid-childhood reading and cognitive skills (7-8 years), based on longitudinal phenotype measures and genome-wide genetic data from up to 6,524 unrelated children. We showed that vocabulary skills assessed at different stages during early development are influenced by distinct genetic factors, two of which also contribute to genetic variation in mid-childhood skills, suggesting developmental stability: Genetic sources emerging for word production skills at 24 months were linked to subsequent verbal abilities, including mid-childhood reading and verbal intelligence performance. A further independent genetic factor was identified that related to word comprehension at 38 months and also contributed to variation in later verbal as well as non-verbal abilities during mid-childhood. Thus, the genetic foundations of mid-childhood reading and cognition involve at least two independent genetic factors that emerge during early-life langauge development and may implicate differences in overarching cognitive mechanisms.

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Section: Analysis Strategysupporting

confidence: 88%