A genetic pathway to language disorders

One gene’s regulation of another gene may foster a common childhood language disorder

Genes speak to each other in their own molecular dialect. By tracking one such conversation, scientists have identified a genetic relationship that may contribute to the common childhood language disorder known as specific language impairment, or SLI.

A gene called FOXP2 communicates with another gene, contactin-associated protein-like 2, or CNTNAP2.