The Brave New World of Epigenetics: Embracing Complexity in the Study of Speech and Language Disorders

Abstract

The study of causal influences on marked disorders of speech and language have been dominated by dichotomies and reductionist models. However, the emergent evidence of epigenetics forces us to acknowledge the complex mechanisms that underlie such conditions. The purpose of this article is to highlight future directions for studying the causal mechanisms that underlie children’s speech and language disorders, with an emphasis on speech sound disorders and specific language impairment. In doing so, we will briefly highlight past methods of studying genetic effects on children’s speech sound and language disorder profiles and propose the dynamic systems theory as a meaningful framework for studying the complex landscape of childhood speech-language development. This model challenges traditional dichotomies between genetic and environmental effects and between beneficial versus deleterious effects/factors.