Tag Archives: autism in fraternal twins

A researcher from Northwestern University in Illinois found that twins born with a low birth weight were three times more likely to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than their heavier counterparts. Molly Losh from the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern studied over 3,700 same-sex twin sets from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study of Sweden (CATSS). She found that heavier twins had a lower risk of developing certain birth defects like ASD; for every 100 grams, the child’s risk of developing ASD decreased by 13 percent. This research is significant, because medical professionals have long considered autism a genetic disorder. Losh’s research, however, indicates that environmental factors may play a larger role in the development of ASD than scientists previously thought. Often, one of the twins would develop ASD and the other would not; considering that many of these twins share the same…
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