LONGITUDINAL TWIN STUDY OF EARLY READING DEVELOPMENT

拟议的研究将评估个人的病因学 阅读前和早期阅读发展的差异及其协变 注意力/多动症的个体差异。我们会 对608对同卵和异卵双胞胎进行纵向研究， 从4岁开始，一直到他们的早期阅读 在幼儿园、一年级和二年级结束时的发展。双胞胎 数据将被用来探索遗传、共享环境的贡献 和非共享环境对个体差异的影响在重要 学龄前儿童的阅读前技能和注意力，以及遗传和 学龄前行为与后续阅读之间的环境联系 早期年级的发展和关注。学前教育的措施 孩子们将对他们的学习能力进行“动态”评估。 对单词中音素的敏感度，以及其他语言技能的测量 以及被认为对早期阅读很重要的注意力/多动 发展。将使用家长来探索特定的环境影响 以及教师问卷和家庭观察。我们计划召唤 将拟议的美国双胞胎研究样本的数据与一个较小的 这些研究人员的一项平行研究包括了澳大利亚双胞胎的样本 这将使用相同的衡量标准和抽样程序。而统计数据 美国样本的力量将足以解决核心问题 至于个体差异，美国和澳大利亚的联合样本将 允许评估遗传和环境影响是否 异常组成员的情况类似(例如，阅读障碍、注意力 缺陷障碍)与正常范围内的个体差异。 这些来自年轻双胞胎的独特的纵向数据，包括动态和静态 预读技能的衡量标准、环境措施和注意措施将 提供了关于遗传和环境病因学的重要新证据 学龄前儿童阅读发展关键期的个体差异 一直读到二年级。

The proposed research would assess the etiology of individual differences in prereading and early reading development, and their covariation with individual differences in attention/hyperactivity. We will conduct a longitudinal study of 608 identical and fraternal twin pairs, beginning at 4 years of age, and continuing through their early reading development at the end of kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. The twin data will be used to explore the contributions of genetic, shared-environmental and non-shared environmental influences to individual differences in important pre-reading skills and attention in preschoolers, as well as genetic and environmental links between preschool behavior and subsequent reading development and attention in the early grades. Measures for the preschool children will include a "dynamic" assessment of their ability to learn sensitivity to phonemes in words, as well as measures of other language skills and attention/hyperactivity that are believed to be important in early reading development. Specific environmental influences will be explored using parent and teacher questionnaires and home observations. We plan calls for combining the data from the proposed U.S. twin study sample and a smaller sample of Australian twins included in a parallel study by these investigators that will use the same measures and sampling procedures. While the statistical power of the U.S. sample will be sufficient to address the central questions regarding individual differences, the combined U.S. and Australian samples will allow the assessment of whether genetic and environmental influences are similar for deviant-group membership (i.e., reading disability, attention deficit disorder) versus individual differences across the normal range. These unique longitudinal data from young twins, including dynamic and static measures of prereading skills, environmental measures, and attention measures, will provide important new evidence regarding the genetic and environmental etiology of individual differences across a critical period of reading development from preschool through second grade.