Lexical and grammatical development in children at family risk of dyslexia from early childhood to school entry: a cross-lagged analysis.

Ømur Caglar-Ryeng,Kenneth Eklund,Trude Nergård-Nilssen

doi:10.1017/s0305000919000333

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine (a) the development of vocabulary and grammar in children with family-risk (FR) of dyslexia and their peers with no such risk (NoFR) between ages 1;6 and 6;0, and (b) whether FR-status exerted an effect on the direction of temporal relationships between these two constructs. Groups were assessed at seven time-points using standardised tests and parental reports. Results indicated that although FR and NoFR children had a similar development in the earlier years, the FR group appeared to perform significantly more poorly on vocabulary at the end of the preschool period. Results showed no significant effect of FR status on the cross-lagged relations between lexical and grammatical skills, suggesting a similar developmental pattern of cross-domain relations in both groups. However, FR status seemed to have a significantly negative association with vocabulary and grammar scores at age 6;0, resulting in language outcomes in favour of NoFR children.

Highlights

It has long been known that dyslexia runs in families, and the consensus view is that dyslexia is a multifactorial disorder with a complex interaction of genetic factors with environmental influences (Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016; van Bergen, van der Leij, & de Jong, 2014)
No-family risk (NoFR) parents performed significantly better on verbal comprehension (WASI; Ørbeck & Sundet, 2007) compared to familial risk of dyslexia (FR) parents, which may suggest that some parents in the FR group suffer from developmental language disorder in addition to dyslexia
70% of the participants had a full dataset of all language measures from ages 1;6 to 6;0

Summary

Introduction

It has long been known that dyslexia runs in families, and the consensus view is that dyslexia is a multifactorial disorder with a complex interaction of genetic factors with environmental influences (Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016; van Bergen, van der Leij, & de Jong, 2014). This demonstrates the importance of recognising the continuities between reading and language disorders and keeping an eye on FR children’s language development from early on (Nash, Hulme, Gooch, & Snowling, 2013). To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to examine whether family risk has an impact on the cross-lagged relationships between these domains over the course of the preschool years

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