Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics at Oxford University have identified the gene responsible for speech impairment in children.

The gene is called CNTNAP2. Scientists say that the gene appears to play a role in inherited, common speech impairments. CNTNAP2 has also been associated with more autism and attention hyperactivity disorder.

"The fact that attention deficit disordered children and autistic children have motor delays makes me a little bit worried that what was picked is not a gene that is specific to language, but a gene that affects motor skills [that] is impacting language as well," said researcher Karin Stromswold at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
 
"This is the first time anyone has pinpointed a specific gene that is involved in common forms of language impairments," University of Oxford geneticist and Wellcome Trust researcher Simon Fisher, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

There is a possibility that changes in CNTNAP2 somehow interfere with production of a type of protein called a neurexin, which is important to the fetal development of the nervous system and eventual language ability, he added.