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. 2023 Jun;53(6):2185-2202.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05504-3. Epub 2022 Mar 12.

Bilingual and Monolingual Autistic Toddlers: Language and Social Communication Skills

Ingrid Hastedt  1 , Abbey Eisenhower  2 , R Christopher Sheldrick  3 , Alice S Carter  1
Affiliations

Bilingual and Monolingual Autistic Toddlers: Language and Social Communication Skills

Ingrid Hastedt et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Bilingualism; Language; Social communication.

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