This paper looks at the debilitating disease called Fragile X Disorder. It examines the physical characteristics of people
who suffer from this disorder as well as mental and
behavioral problems. It focuses on the specific issue of speech impairments causing communication problems. From the paper: "Fragile X is the most common inherited cause of developmental and learning disabilities, affecting as many as one person in every 1,000 (Saunders, 1999). Fragile X is a sex-linked genetic disorder and is named so because of a fragile site on the tip of the long arm of the X chromosome where it looks as if a piece of the chromosome is broken off (Saunders, 1999). The gene responsible for the disorder is Fragile Mental Retardation 1 (FMR-1) and can be diagnosed through DNA testing (Saunders, 1999). The FMR-1 gene becomes faulty due to an expansion of three nucleotides, Cytosine-Guanine-Guanine (CGG), which inhibits the production of the FMR protein; the FMR protein is essential for normal brain
development (Symons, et al, 2001). "