Longitudinal Social and Communication Outcomes in Children with Autism Raised in Bi/Multilingual Environments

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• More than half the world's population speaks more than one language.
• Limited research exists on the social communication development of bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
• Evidence-based recommendations for health professionals and educators regarding language use in bilingual children with ASD are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the social and communication development of monolingual and bilingual children with ASD.
• To investigate the impact of early intervention on social communication skills in these groups over 12 months.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal cohort study design.
• Compared 60 monolingual and 60 bilingual children with ASD.
• Assessed social and communication skills at baseline and after 12 months of community-based early intervention.

Main Results:

• Few initial differences were observed between monolingual and bilingual children with ASD at intake.
• No significant difference in the rate or magnitude of change in social communication skills over 12 months.
• Bilingual children with ASD demonstrated comparable developmental trajectories to their monolingual peers.

Conclusions:

• There is no evidence to suggest that bilingualism negatively impacts social communication development in children with ASD.
• Findings support the continued use of home languages for bilingual children with ASD.
• Early intervention appears equally effective for both monolingual and bilingual children with ASD.