Understanding Comorbidity Between Specific Learning Disabilities

Current definitions of specific learning disability (SLD) identify a heterogeneous population that includes individuals with weaknesses in reading, math, or writing, and these academic difficulties often co-occur in many of the same individuals. The Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center (CLDRC) is an interdisciplinary, multisite research program that uses converging levels of analysis to understand the genetic and environmental etiology, neuropsychology, and developmental outcomes of SLDs in reading (RD), math (MD), and writing (WD), along with the comorbidity between these SLDs and other developmental disorders. The latest results from the CLDRC twin study suggest that shared genetic influences contribute to the significant covariance between all aspects of reading (word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension) and math (calculations, math fluency, and word problems), and distinct genetic or environmental influences also contribute to weaknesses in each specific academic domain. RD and MD are associated with a range of negative outcomes on both concurrent measures and measures of functional outcomes completed 5 years after the twins were first assessed. Over the next several years the CLDRC will continue to expand on this work by administering a comprehensive test battery that includes measures of all dimensions of academic achievement that are described in current definitions of SLD and incorporating these measures in new neuroimaging and molecular genetic studies.