Nondextrality and autoimmune disorders among relaives of language‐disabled boys

The incidences of autoimmune diseases, nonright‐handedness, 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 characteristics 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 Decemberreased incidence as compared with the control group. This suggests a biological heterogeneity among these families, despite a similar phenotype among all the language‐disabled probands.