Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center

Overview

Click here for a printable one-page overview of the CLDRC

Since 1973, researchers of the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center (CLDRC) have been conducting research pertaining to the definition, etiology, and treatment of learning disabilities (LD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the CLDRC is a multidisciplinary, multi-site collaborative effort comprised of five component projects at sites in Colorado, Nebraska and Australia. A primary objective of the Center is to assess the genetic and environmental causes of reading deficits, ADHD and their comorbidity, as well as their covariation with measures of reading and language processes, mathematics performance and executive functions. A further goal is to assess possible precursors of reading deficits, as well as their genetic and environmental origins. Some of the earliest evidence for genetic etiologies of reading disability (RD) and ADHD, as well as some of the most recent and exciting evidence, has been obtained by co-investigators of the CLDRC.

For more information about the specific research projects of the CLDRC, please click on the name of the project.

Project I: Twin studies (DeFries, Wadsworth, & Willcutt)

Project II: Reading and Language Processes (Olson, Compton, & Keenan)

Project III: Validity of subtypes of ADHD (Pennington & Willcutt)

Project IV: Genomic Analyses (Smith, Barber & Eudy)

Project V: Early reading, language, and attention development (Olson & Byrne)