Nondextrality and autoimmune disorders among relaives of language‐disabled boys

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Abstract
The incidences of autoimmune disease, nonrighthandedness, and premature graying of the hair have been said to be increased among the relatives of dyslexic persons. I undertook a prospective evaluation of the relatives of 100 language-disabled boys seen in a tertiary hospital learning disabilities clinic. I established the incidence of these characteristic and compared the results with those obtained from the relatives of 100 boys referred to a neurology clinic for evaluation of seizures or muscle disease. The families of the language-disabled boys were divisible into two groups, one with an increased incidence of these characteristics and one with a decreased incidence as compared with the control group. This suggests a biological heterogeneity among these families, despite a similar phenotype among all the language-disable probands.