Surveying the Language Switching Behaviours of Multilingual Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Neurodiversity Studies
• Psychology

Background:

• Research on multilingualism and autism is growing.
• Understanding language use in autistic multilingual individuals remains a gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey linguistic behaviors of multilingual autistic individuals.
• To compare their language use with non-autistic multilingual individuals.

Main Methods:

• Collected self-report data from 177 participants (98 autistic, 79 non-autistic).
• Utilized a custom online questionnaire on multilingual usage and switching.
• Analyzed data from participants aged 42-44.5 on average.

Main Results:

• Autistic participants reported knowing more languages and using them more than non-autistic peers.
• Autistic individuals found language switching more effortful.
• Daily non-native language use and international living experiences were comparable across groups.

Conclusions:

• Autistic adults lead active multilingual lives comparable to neurotypical individuals.
• Further research should explore autistic multilinguals' linguistic community ties and cognitive flexibility.