Reading Disability (RD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are the two most prevalentdisorders of childhood, and these two disorders frequently co-occur. The overall goal of the proposedresearch is to refine our understanding of the diagnostic validity, etiology and neuropsychology of ADHD inorder to understand how ADHD contributes to RD. To accomplish these objectives, an extensivepsychometric test battery will be administered to a sample of 50 pairs of identical twins and 50 pairs offraternal twins in which at least one member of each pair is reading disabled, to an independent sample of50 pairs of identical twins and 50 pairs of fraternal twins in which at least one member of each pair hasADHD, to a comparison sample of 50 pairs of identical twins and 50 pairs of fraternal twins with no schoolhistory of reading deficits or ADHD, and to the siblings of all twin pairs. The test battery includes multiplemeasures of executive functions, orbital frontal cortex functioning, and processing speed. A well-validateddiagnostic interview and a battery of rating scales will also be administered to parents and teachers of eachtwin and their siblings to assess ADHD and comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms. DNA will becollected from each twin and sibling and all biological parents, and these phenotypic and genotypic data willbe used to conduct univariate and bivariate twin, linkage, and candidate gene analyses to identifyquantitative trait loci that influence ADHD and its comorbidity with RD.
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