Re: Genetic Link to Apraxia? Anyone with 2 affected children in family?

[Guest guest]

Hi Leigh!

Right off the top I can tell you that Jeannie Buesser -The President

of Apraxia Network of Bergan County and Outreach Coordinator for

CHERAB has one son with apraxia and ADHD - and a younger son with PDD

who is still not talking. You can read her story and much more in

the February Exceptional Parent magazine which features an article on

verbal apraxia (and CHERAB!) on newstands now. There is more info in

the archives on how to get this issue.

There are lots of links out there -the best place to search for new

ones are at http://www.google.com Once you find the name of a

researcher -or University -just put in that name and you'll find more

and more. You may want to search under FoxP2 gene for example if you

are looking for apraxia and genetic links. Here is what a quick

search tonight brought up :

A PDF file from Oxford which answers many of your questions about

links -genetic included - between ADHD, dyspraxia as well as

dyslexia, autism and dysphasia

http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/~jfs/bioltxt.ppt which has lots of

reference as well as to why the PUFA's (like ProEFA or Efalex) are

important.

Here is an article on speech language impairment (SLI) and genetic

links -and anyone with a child with apraxia should also look into and

learn about SLI. It's " different " (they say) than apraxia -but it's

obvious overlaps happen here as well when you read up on it

and " study " your own child with diagnosed apraxia (also you can

search much more on SLI -there is a wealth of info on this prevalent

speech impairment) http://sls.qmced.ac.uk/talks/Cohen.htm

Here is one I found from the US

POSTER SESSION 3

S105 Family Pedigrees of Children with Suspected Developmental

Apraxia of Speech

Barbara

Freebairn

H. Gerry

Deorah V. Dawson

Sudha Iyengar

Case Western Reserve University

Lawrence Shriberg

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Family pedigrees of a relatively large cohort of children with

suspected developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) were examined for

familial aggregation. Thirty-eight children (28 males and 10 females)

ages 3.08 to 8.8 years, were referred from the caseloads of clinical

speech-language pathologists for suspected DAS. DAS was confirmed by

examination of developmental history and directly testing speech,

language, and oral motor abilities. Family pedigrees were constructed

through parent interviews. Twenty-two children (58%) had at least one

parent affected suggesting vertical transmission of the disorder and

a possible autosomal dominant mode. Mothers (37%) and fathers (32%)

were approximately equally affected as were sisters (52%) and

brothers (53%). Affection rates of nuclear family members of children

with DAS exceeded reported affection rates of nuclear family members

of children with phonology disorders.

http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/srcld/pages/pastsrclds/2001/abstracts2001/

S1052001.htm

And I know that the Neurosciences Lab at Rutgers (the Tallal lab -and

Dr. Tallal is one of our advisors) is doing extensive genetic testing

on various communication disorders, which perhaps they will answer

your excellent question as well as others. I don't believe that

there are any experts left who will argue that communication

disorders do not overlap. Anyone?

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[Guest guest]

Although no one has specifically isolated or identifed an " apraxia

gene, " the current finding on FOXP2 on Chromosome 7q suggests that

several of the family members in that study had motor speech

problems which could be characterized as apraxia. We know that

there is often co-morbidity of specific language, speech, and

learning problems but having one child with one of these problems

does not necessarily mean that other siblings will also present with

similar problems. Also, these problems if present are not always of

the same intensity. Although I am not familiar with specific rate

of apraxia in families, we do know about rates of specific

language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia in families. When one

person in the family has been identified with either of these

problems, the rate of these problems in other family members ranges

from aprroximately 20%-40%. There is a person at Case Western

Reserve University in Ohio who is working with a team on the genetic

basis of apraxia. Her name is Dr. Barbara . When I saw her in

November, her analyses were not completed, but she may have more

detailed information by now. She would be a good person to contact

for more specific information about familial incidence of apraxia and

associated conditions. Good luck to you!

Judy F. Flax, Ph.D.

Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience

Rutgers University

197 University Avenue

Newark, New Jersey 07102

(973) 353-1080 x3214

FAX: (973) 353-1760

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From: " lbrain123 " <bygpub@...>

Date: Fri Mar 8, 2002 4:50 am

Subject: Genetic Link to Apraxia? Anyone with 2 affected children in

family?

My son (4 yrs) has apraxia. My daughter (2 years) does not. Next

month I will deliver twin boys and I am wondering how likely they are

to have apraxia. Does anyone have 2 or more children in their family

(or extended family) with apraxia?

Another mother of an apraxic child told me researchers thought it was

genetic and also tied to Attention deficit disorder. Are there any

families with apraxia and ADD in the same family?

My husband's cousin's daughter has also been diagnoised with apraxia

which seems like it might point to be genetic.

I have seen my son struggle and I hope my twin boys will be spared

the same long journey in learning how to speak. But I've never heard

of anyone having 2 apraxic children so I wonder if I am worrying over

nothing.

Anyways, any comments would be appreciated! Thanks!

Leigh

[Guest guest]

Thanks Dr. Flax for this answer!

Dr. Judy Flax and Dr. a Tallal of the Center for Molecular and

Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers are two of the advisors for

CHERAB. speaking about SLI -here are just two of their many

scientific papers about SLI (which also relate to the family question)

http://babylab.rutgers.edu/talks/Flax_ASHA2001.pdf

http://babylab.rutgers.edu/talks/Flax_IDA2000.pdf

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