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. 2017 Mar;88(2):573-583.
doi: 10.1111/cdev.12604. Epub 2016 Aug 30.

Genetic and Environmental Links Between Natural Language Use and Cognitive Ability in Toddlers

Caitlin F Canfield  1 , Lisa R Edelson  1 , Kimberly J Saudino  1
Affiliations

Genetic and Environmental Links Between Natural Language Use and Cognitive Ability in Toddlers

Caitlin F Canfield et al. Child Dev. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Although the phenotypic correlation between language and nonverbal cognitive ability is well-documented, studies examining the etiology of the covariance between these abilities are scant, particularly in very young children. The goal of this study was to address this gap in the literature by examining the genetic and environmental links between language use, assessed through conversational language samples, and nonverbal cognition in a sample of 3-year-old twins (N = 281 pairs). Significant genetic and nonshared environmental influences were found for nonverbal cognitive ability and language measures, including mean length of utterance and number of different words, as well as significant genetic covariance between cognitive ability and both language measures.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trivariate Correlated Factors Model. The circles represent the latent additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and nonshared environmental (E) factors that influence each phenotype. The path coefficients, h, c and e, are standardized partial regression coefficients indicating the relative influence of the latent factors on each phenotype. The black double-headed paths are the estimated genetic and environmental correlations between phenotypes. rg (shown in bold) shows the genetic correlations between each pairs of variables; rc (dashed) shows the shared-environmental correlations, and re (dotted) the nonshared environmental correlations. The grey double headed paths reflect genetic (solid) and shared environmental (dashed) correlations between co-twins (values are provided in the model based on the assumptions of the twin design). MLU = mean length of utterance. NDW = number of different words.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Estimates of genetic and nonshared environmental variances and covariances (and 95% CI) for cognitive ability, MLU (mean length of utterance) and NDW (number of different words) from the best-fitting model.
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