RESEARCHERS are close to identifying a gene predisposing children to
dyslexia. Once they do, this could aid early diagnosis and therapy for the
condition, which affects up to 10 per cent of children worldwide.
Previous studies have either investigated specific chromosome regions, or
focused on a small number of families. But Anthony Monaco and his team at the
Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford scanned the whole genome of
children from 208 British and American families in which at least one child was
dyslexic. By comparing these results with the children’s reading ability, they
were able to pinpoint a…
