Using genetic and environmental risks to understand variation in social, emotional, and educational outcomes in individuals with language impairments.

语言障碍(LI)是最常见的儿童障碍之一。它的特点是在没有明显原因(如耳聋)的情况下，在使用和理解口语方面存在问题。这种障碍是“隐藏的”，因为受影响的人没有任何明显的可见特征，将他们与其他儿童区分开来。在5岁的儿童中，大约有7%的人患有LI--是自闭症的7倍。受李氏综合症影响的儿童经常会遇到社交、情绪健康和教育问题。成年后，许多人将难以找到稳定的工作，社会功能障碍和心理健康困难的风险增加。尽管这种情况对儿童和他们的家庭造成了严重的影响，但李在普通社区中鲜为人知。李氏障碍是一种多种多样的疾病，不同的孩子表现出不同的相关困难。并不是所有的孩子都会有糟糕的结局。例如，一些人可能有行为困难，而另一些人则没有。确定是什么让不同的儿童变得脆弱是具有挑战性的。该项目将利用儿童出生后头两年的遗传风险信息和数据(如家庭书本数量、社会经济地位等)。使用一种称为潜在类别分析的统计方法，将儿童分成不同的小组。这将允许调查是否属于某些子组会影响童年中期的结果。例如，具有高遗传风险和良好家庭环境的儿童可能与具有低遗传风险和良好家庭环境的儿童具有类似的结果。如果事实证明确实如此，这将表明，有利的家庭环境可以减轻遗传风险。这将提供证据，将资源用于最脆弱的儿童，以改善他们的生活质量。该项目还将确定导致社会适应、教育水平和心理健康功能不佳的途径。例如，具有高遗传风险和不良家庭环境的儿童可能在童年中期出现行为困难和情绪问题。路径分析提供了对多种因素和不同潜在路径的检查：儿童如何从A到B。它还提供了对不同路径的强度的评估，以及对不同功能领域的结果在多大程度上源于共同或独特的路径的评估。这一建议的部分优势在于将多种因素纳入同一模型：遗传、环境和心理因素。与语言障碍相关的经济损失估计占国民生产总值的2.5%。有关不良后果途径的证据将对公共卫生措施和服务提供产生广泛的影响。这类项目需要大量的参与者。雅芳亲子纵向研究(ALSPAC)已获准使用。这是一个现有的流行病学数据库，有约7,000名儿童的记录，因此该项目不需要新的数据收集。

Language Impairment (LI) is one of the most common childhood disorders. It is characterized by problems with using and understanding spoken language, in the absence of obvious causes such as deafness. The disorder is 'hidden', in that affected individuals do not have any marked visible features distinguishing them from other children. Among 5-year-olds, approximately 7% have LI - seven times more prevalent than autism. Children affected by LI often experience social, emotional health, and educational problems. As adults, many will struggle to find stable employment and are at increased risk of social dysfunction and mental health difficulties. Despite the serious implications of the condition for children and their families, LI is little known among the general community. LI is a varied disorder, with different children manifesting different profiles of associated difficulties. Not all children go on to have poor outcomes. For example, some may have behavioural difficulties whilst others do not. Determining what makes different children vulnerable is challenging. The project will make use of genetic-risk information and data from the first 2 years of child's life (such as number of books in the household, socioeconomic status etc.) to classify children into sub-groups, using a statistical method known as latent class analysis. This will allow the investigation of whether belonging to certain sub-groups affects outcomes in middle childhood. For example, it may be that the children with a high genetic risk and a favourable home environment have comparable outcomes to those children with low genetic risk and a favourable home environment. If this does prove to be the case, it would suggest that genetic risk can be mitigated by a favourable home environment. This would provide evidence to target resources towards the most vulnerable children to improve their quality of life.The project will also identify the pathways to poor outcomes in social adjustment, educational attainment and mental health functioning. For example, it may be that children with high genetic risk and a unfavourable home environment have behavioural difficulties and emotional problems in middle childhood. Pathway analyses afford the examination of multiple factors and different potential routes: how children may get from A to B. It also affords the evaluation of the strength of different pathways and the assessment of the extent to which outcomes in different areas of functioning derive from common or distinctive routes. Part of the strength of this proposal is the inclusion of a variety of factors: genetic, environmental, and psychological in the same model. The economic cost associated with language impairment has been estimated at 2.5% of gross national product. Evidence on the pathways to adverse outcomes will have wide ranging implications for public health measures and service provision. This type of project requires large numbers of participants. Approval has been granted to use the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). This is an existing, epidemiological database that has records for ~7,000 children so no new data collection is needed for the project.