Clinical perspectives
Bilingualism in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Finding Meaning in Translation

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Bilingual and Monolingual Children With ASD Perform Similarly Across Tasks

Research to date indicates that at worst bilingual exposure in children with ASD has no effect on language development and at best offers advantages on adaptive functioning, social communication, and receptive language (see Wang et al.3 for an in-depth review). Valicenti-McDermott et al.5 found that toddlers with ASD and bilingual exposure made increased attempts to communicate through gestures, cooing, and engaging in pretend play compared with their monolingual peers. Similar advantages have

Parental Interaction Is Critical for Language Development in ASD

Language acquisition in ASD is heavily influenced by parental interaction. However, a parent’s role would be disrupted if there is nonnative language use with their child.8 For a caregiver, the level of proficiency in the language directed at their child leads to increased opportunities for parent–child interactions and facilitation of language development in daily life.7 For example, when parents use a nonnative language to communicate with their typically developing children, they interrupt

Lifelong Sociocultural Implications Are Understudied

Assessing outcomes beyond childhood where cultural and societal aspects of bilingualism play a critical role is an important gap in the literature.3, 6 Studies have found that for bilingual families, maintaining the parental native language as the home language facilitates cross-generational relationships, helps preserve cultural heritage, and supports a cohesive family relationship.7, 9 As such, by limiting exposure to the parental native language in children with ASD, additional communication

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

This work was supported by grants from the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation and the Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation.

The authors thank all the families who shared their stories of bilingualism in autism spectrum disorder with them. Caregiver interviews included in this article were conducted while patients participated in research at the Seaver Autism Center between 2016 and 2018.

Disclosure: Dr. Trelles has received research support through the National Institute of Medical Sciences, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has received travel support from the International Society for Autism Research and Gordon Research Conferences. Ms. Castro reports no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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