Specific language impairment (SLI) is a language disorder that affects growing children, who find it inexplicably difficult to pick up the spoken language skills that their peers acquire so effortlessly. Autism is another (perhaps more familiar) developmental disorder and many autistic children also have problems in picking up normal speech and communication. These two conditions have a common theme of language difficulties running through them, but a new study reveals a deeper connection - both are linked to a gene called CNTNAP2.
The story of CNTNAP2 actually begins with another gene, whose name will be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in the genetics of language - FOXP2. Earlier this year, I wrote a long feature on the history of FOXP2 for New Scientist, but here's a potted version.
FOXP2 was catapulted into the limelight earlier this decade when it became the first gene to be linked to an ...
