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Genes affect how you read this


Genes influence how you learn to read and spell (Image: iStockphoto)

The genes involved in learning to sound out words are different from the ones involved in learning to recognise words by sight, according to an Australian study.

The finding, published online in the journal Reading and Writing, adds fuel to the debate about the best way of teaching children to read.

There are two particular skills that children need to learn if they are going to be good readers.

The first is the sounding out process, known as phonics.

The other skill is being able to recognise familiar words pretty much by sight. This helps when they read words such as 'yacht' that don't follow the phonics rule.

Researchers including Associate Professor Anne Castles, from the University of Melbourne, tested different genetic models for reading and spelling in 691 sets of identical and non-identical twins to determine to what extent these skills are genetically based.

Twins are ideal for this type of research because identical twins are more similar genetically than non-identical twins.

So if a skill has a genetic basis, identical twins tend to be more similar to each other than non-identical twins.

The researchers found that both reading and spelling skills do have a genetic basis, although a child's environment is also important.

"Not all of that skill is something you are born with, but there is a genetic component," Castles says.

The particularly novel thing about this study is that different sets of genes seem to be involved to some degree for those different processes.

"So the genes for learning to sound words out are different from the ones that are involved in learning to recognise words by sight. But certainly many genes were shared in common as well."

A second finding is that reading and spelling have a common genetic basis, meaning that if children are having difficulty spelling they will also be likely to struggle with learning to read.

Castles says the research has implications for future research into reading and spelling.

"The existence of different reading sub-skills, with different genetic bases, needs to be reflected in our theories of reading and its acquisition," she says.
