The Role of Genetic Factors in Reading and its Development Across Languages and Writing Systems

Abstract

ABSTRACT This mini-review attempts to provide a capsule overview of the role of genetic factors in reading and its development across languages and writing systems. The review is conceived and executed with a scoping review approach, synthesizing the methods employed in the existing research rather than producing a summary of evidence to answer a discrete research question. Specifically, major research approaches in the field of quantitative- and molecular-genetic studies of (a)typical reading development are briefly reviewed and interpreted. Current frontiers of the field are described and places where evidence is insufficient to generate explicit statements about indisputable findings are highlighted. Overall, the resulting vector of the review points to the necessity of the relevant empirical work. Based on the available data at this point, it is impossible to comment authoritatively on the role of languages and writing systems as specifiers or modifiers of the genetic machinery underlying the development of reading skills, as a critical mass of relevant research does not currently exist. More relevant studies are needed to provide evidence-based conclusions about this role.