Bilingual and Monolingual Autistic Toddlers: Language and Social Communication Skills

Parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) express concern about raising their children bilingually, and often hear advice from professionals against the use of bilingualism. The current study examined the relation between bilingualism and the language and social communicatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of autism and developmental disorders 2023-06, Vol.53 (6), p.2185-2202
Main Authors: Hastedt, Ingrid, Eisenhower, Abbey, Sheldrick, R. Christopher, Carter, Alice S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis
Autistic children
Autistic Disorder
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Bilingualism
Child and School Psychology
Child, Preschool
Children
Communication
Communication skills
Demographic aspects
English language
Families & family life
Humans
Language
Language Development
Language proficiency
Minority & ethnic groups
Monolingualism
Multilingualism
Neurosciences
Original Paper
Parent-child relations
Parents & parenting
Pediatrics
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Public Health
Risk factors
Social skills
Socialization
Socioeconomic factors
Spanish language
Toddlers
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Summary:Parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) express concern about raising their children bilingually, and often hear advice from professionals against the use of bilingualism. The current study examined the relation between bilingualism and the language and social communication skills of toddlers diagnosed with ASD (N = 353) in the US, while controlling for socioeconomic risk factors. Structural equation modeling showed no differences in language skills between bilingual Spanish–English speaking children and monolingual English-speaking ( p  = .596) or monolingual Spanish-speaking ( p  = .963) children and showed a bilingual advantage on socialization skills when comparing bilingual and monolingual English-speaking children ( p  = .001). Parents of autistic children exposed to Spanish and English should be encouraged to raise their child bilingually if it best suits familial needs.
ISSN:0162-3257
1573-3432
DOI:10.1007/s10803-022-05504-3