Bilingualism in School-Aged Children with ASD: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Background:

• Previous research indicated preschool bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) keep pace with monolingual peers with ASD.
• Uncertainty remains regarding the language development of older bilingual children with ASD as language demands increase.
• The study addresses whether older bilingual children with ASD can achieve language levels comparable to neurotypically developing (ND) bilingual children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the language abilities of school-aged bilingual children with ASD to monolingual children with ASD.
• To assess if bilingual children with ASD can match the language proficiency of neurotypically developing (ND) bilingual and monolingual children.
• To investigate the impact of bilingualism on language development in school-aged children with ASD.

Main Methods:

• Comparative study design involving school-aged children.
• Inclusion of participants: 3 bilingual children with ASD, 2 monolingual children with ASD, 19 ND bilingual children, and 12 ND monolingual children.
• Statistical analysis using cluster analyses to compare language abilities across groups.

Main Results:

• Cluster analyses revealed that bilingual children with ASD demonstrated language abilities similar to monolingual children with ASD.
• Bilingual children with ASD also exhibited comparable language skills to neurotypically developing (ND) bilingual and monolingual children.
• The findings indicate that bilingualism does not hinder language development in school-aged children with ASD compared to their peers.

Conclusions:

• Bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can maintain language development on par with their monolingual peers with ASD.
• Older bilingual children with ASD achieve language levels similar to neurotypically developing bilingual and monolingual children.
• Results suggest bilingual children with ASD can keep pace with peers possessing similar intellectual abilities, irrespective of language exposure.