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

Whilst research in multilingualism and autism is increasing, there is still a gap when it comes to understanding how multilingual autistic individuals use their multiple languages. The aim of this research was to survey these linguistic behaviours from a self-report perspective and compare them to non-autistic multilingual individuals.

We collected data from 364 participants of which 177 (autistic = 98; mean age = 44.5, non-autistic = 79; mean age = 42.2) were included in the final analysis. Multilingual usage and switching behaviour were measured through an online questionnaire made available on Qualtrics, developed for the purpose of this research.

The questionnaire revealed that autistic participants rated themselves as more multilingual, based on number of languages known, and used their respective languages more than non-autistic participants, although they reported switching between their languages as more effortful than non-autistic participants. A large portion of autistic individuals also reported using a non-native language daily and a similar number of autistic and non-autistic participants reported having lived in a country where their first or second language was spoken. Overall, autistic participants reported comparable or more multilingual language usage than non-autistic participants.

The results of this research demonstrate that speaking autistic adults are, as one might intuitively expect, living active multilingual lives comparable to their typical peers. Future research should further investigate the rapport autistic multilingual individuals have with their linguistic communities via their language usage and the cognitive flexibility that may be associated with living multilingual and cross-national lives.