Multilingualism in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cynthia Griffin

EN142 35A: Composition & Rhetoric (Hon)

Professor Sarah Blazer

November 16, 2021

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Introduction

People with disabilities have always been a part of my life. Growing up in a school environment

that had a disabilities program within it meant that we took classes with, played with, and graduated with

children who had forms of developmental disabilities. While this was more eye-opening than never being

exposed to any disabilities, there was still a disconnect between my own life and the disabilities

community. When my mom got a job at Jawonio, a local non-profit organization in my hometown that

aids people with physical and developmental disabilities, I began to connect more with this community.

In total, there are 15 homes plus some condos and apartments run by Jawonio that house over 125

residents with varying levels of disabilities. One of these houses, Fisher House, was the house I spent the

majority of 2019 volunteering for. I would go in every Saturday from 9am to 5pm to do arts and crafts

with the residents. During my time there, not only did I come to realize that art was an amazing way for

them to express their creativity and do dexterous exercises, but I also came to consider many of them my

friends.

One resident in particular has a special place in my heart, her name is Victoria. She has cerebral

palsy and some developmental disabilities. Always riding around in her wheelchair and blasting Ariana

Grande from her neon purple ipad, Victoria was like the sun of Fisher House. We would often sit with

each other and draw; I would help her hold her colored pencils if I noticed it became hard for her.

Overtime, however, I realized that the more time she spent drawing the better she got at holding the

pencil on her own. The act of drawing became a physical therapy of sorts for Victoria and the other

residents. Communicating with Victoria was also a challenge at first, the combination of her cerebral

palsy and developmental disabilities made it more difficult to form words and sentences. The more time I

spent with her, the more I was able to understand Victoria’s ways of communicating. From these

experiences, I realized that people with disabilities are a lot more capable than a lot of us realize.

Multilingualism and Autism Spectrum Disorder

This stigmatization of people with developmental disabilities has persisted throughout society.
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People like Victoria, who have disabilities that affect their communication--like autism spectrum disorder

(ASD)--are discouraged by professionals within their community from learning a second language

because of concerns of it hindering the lingual development of their primary language (Iarocci et al.,

2017; Jegatheesan, 2011; Kay Raining-Bird et al., 2012; Reetzke et al., 2015; Sendhilnathan, S. &

Chengappa, S.K., 2020; Uljarević, M. et al., 2016; Lim, N. et al., 2018; Lim, N. et al., 2019). Among

professionals within the medical, educational, and therapeutic field there has been a practice of

recommending families of children with autism to raise their child monolingual because they believe it

will cause less confusion with the development of the child’s communication competence. This

precaution, despite being extremely prevalent, has no real substance. And although the specifics of the

linguistic development of children with developmental disabilities is still being actively researched within

the community, a vast majority of the studies reveal no effects on the communication of children with

ASD being any different whether they are exposed to a second language or not. In fact, withholding an

autistic child from learning a second language if their family is multilingual can be detrimental to their

communication and overall relationship with their family--especially if a portion of their family is

monolingual in a language other than the primary language of the child (Jegatheesan, 2011, pp.185-6).

The effects of excluding someone who already has trouble communicating from an entire part of their

cultural identity can make the already difficult process of communicating even more challenging.

The necessity for information and support for parents of children with autism is clearly pertinent

due to the conflicting advice among professionals regarding exposing their child to multiple languages.

According to the estimates from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM)

Network at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in every 54 children have

been diagnosed with autism (Data & Statistics, 2020). The fact that such a large number of people are

diagnosed with ASD combined with the lack of grounded advice and information within the community

makes addressing the effects that multilingualism has on the lingual development of children with ASD

even more crucial.

Studies Regarding Multilingualism in Children with ASD

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Many studies have been done within the scientific field regarding these questions on

multilingualism’s effect on children with autism. One of the more recent studies published in 2020 by

Ms.Sendhilnathan and Professor Chengappa delves into the effects of language intervention in English on

the cognitive, social communication, and social skills of children with autism, both monolingual and

bilingual. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the purpose of

language intervention is “...to stimulate overall language development and to teach language skills in an

integrated fashion and in context, so as to enhance everyday communication and ensure access to

academic content”(American Speech, para.2). Language intervention can be used in many contexts, but is

often used as a type of therapy for children with developmental disabilities. It’s done through interacting

with the child by playing and talking, often using activities like reading, showing pictures, using toys, or

ongoing events to stimulate language development (Harnett, J.K., 2019). It’s done in the dominant

language of the participants to stimulate language development, therefore allowing it to be used with both

monolingual and bilingual children. In Sendhilnathan and Chengappa’s study, they use language

intervention in English on two groups of participants--one being bilingual and one being monolingual--to

observe the direct effects of language intervention on the communication and language development of

both groups. The participants were all recruited through the Early Intervention Programmes for Infants

and Children (EIPIC) at Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore (CPAS) and are age-matched across both

groups to ensure the most accurate comparisons of the data.

The results of this study were astounding on multiple parts. For starters, the results showed that

there were significant positive effects on language intervention on the cognitive, social communication

and social skills development of both the bilingual and monolingual children. Not only that, but the data

collected at the end of the intervention process as well as data collected from 2 weeks after the end of the

intervention process were identical, which means that the positive effects of the language intervention

didn’t dissipate even after time away from the study. Going even a step further, although not statistically

significant, the skills of the bilingual children were rated slightly higher than their monolingual peers.
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Thus showing that not only did bilingualism have no adverse effects on the social and communication

skills of the children, it slightly improved their skills (Sendhilnathan, S. & Chengappa, S.K., 2020).

Other studies have been conducted regarding the same topic by professionals all across the world.

One survey study conducted in China in 2015 by Dr.Rachel Reetzke, Dr.Xiaobing Zou, Professor Li

Sheng, and Professor Napoleon Katsos examined the effects of bilingual exposure to the pragmatic

language development of Chinese children with ASD. According to ASHA, pragmatic language--

otherwise known as social communication--is the ability to use a language for a specific purpose, change

the use of language depending on the context, and be able to follow the rules of said language/subject

while having a conversation (Social Communication). Dr.Reetzke et al. encompassed the origins of the

concerns regarding bilingualism and structural language learning perfectly when they said “By definition,

children exposed to two languages receive less input in each of them relative to monolingual children. As

a result, the progression of language development of bilingual children may initially be timed behind that

of monolingual children in terms of vocabulary and grammar”(p.814). The appearance of bilingual

children’s language development running behind their monolingual peers in the early stages of

development seems to increase this hesitancy among the professional and parental community regarding

the incorporation of bilingualism into the education of children with autism. This “delay”, however, goes

away with continued exposure to both languages throughout childhood; an example given by the authors

is that slower vocabulary development within the early stages of life can be nullified by consistent

exposure to both languages. The study, which consisted of evaluating the child’s pragmatic language

competence in their dominant language as well as their social functioning, allowed the authors to

thoroughly examine and compare the effects of bilingualism on the development of the primary language

in children with ASD. Thorough interviews were also conducted with the parents of each child in order to

examine the linguistic environment of the child to further analyze these effects. The results of the study

showed that bilingual children with ASD did not perform any differently than their monolingual

counterparts in language comprehension, which suggests that exposure to another language does not

interfere with the development of the dominant language in a child with autism.
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Another study done in Canada in 2017 by Professor Grace Iarocci, Dr.Sarah M. Hutchison, and

Speech-Language Pathologist Specialist Gillian O’Toole observed the executive function and functional

communication of 174 youth with and without ASD who were exposed to a second language and

compared the results to their non-exposed peers. Not only was this study done with a larger sample size

that covered both children with and without autism, it was also done in such a way that we are able to see

the direct clinical impacts of bilingual exposure. The results of this study, like the other studies, revealed

that second language exposure did not correlate with delay in cognitive development and functional

communication skills for children with ASD. What was significant about these results was that the

authors observed that the group of bilingually exposed children had a lower percentage of children whose

executive function and functional communication fell within the clinical range than that of their

monolingual peers. In short, the bilingual children performed better than the monolingual children

(Iarocci, G. et al., 2017). Recalling the results of Sendhilnathan and Chengappa’s study--who observed a

slight increase in the performance of the bilingual children within their study--allows us to conclude that

not only is there no hindrance to the lingual development of multilingual children with autism, there could

actually be benefits to teaching the child a second language. Although these results are few and far

between and there would need to be more studies done within the community to further delve into these

results, it’s promising information for the parents of children with ASD who might be conflicted

themselves on whether to keep their child monolingual or not.

Discussion

Overall, the various studies done within the scientific community illustrate that being bilingual

provides no hindrance to the language development of children with ASD. In fact, exposure to a second

language has been seen to encourage communication in children with autism. According to Dr.Valicenti-

McDermott et al. (2013), bilingual children with ASD have been seen to engage in more gesturing,

pointing, and playing than their monolingual peers (Lim, N. et al., 2019). There is an observed increase in

communicative confidence when the child is bilingual, however, not enough studies have been conducted

to further evaluate this sort of increase in communication as a result of exposure to a second language so
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the actual benefits of bilingual education for children with ASD is still unclear. The recognition of

preserving the “heritage language” of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders has been seen in

certain countries, including the United States and Canada, but actually putting this into practice has been

where the community has fallen short. Being able to schedule time for language services and having

enough qualified teachers and therapists became the main barrier for this sort of inclusion, many

prioritizing general special education services over that of language intervention (Lim, N. et al., 2019,

p.888). If more research is done within the scientific community regarding the benefits of bilingual

exposure in children with autism, they can solidify that it is not a hindrance to the development of the

child’s primary language. This can allow for greater awareness within the neurodevelopmental

community and can encourage the incorporation of multiple language services into the education of

children with ASD.

This concept that bilingualism can be damaging to the lingual development of children with

autism is based in logical arguments more than based in empirical fact (Lim, N. et al., 2018; Reetzke, R.,

et al. 2015). The idea that children who have a communicative disorder would have difficulty learning a

second language in itself is reasonable to assume. However, when compared to all of the studies done

regarding this concept there is little to no evidence supporting these assumptions. Not only that, but we

must consider the social effects of not teaching a child their “heritage language”, especially children who

already experience social isolation due to their disorder. As Professor Betty Yu (2013) points out,

“...because heritage languages have been demonstrated to not only function as a modes of communication

between family members, but also help develop and maintain cultural identity (Yu 2013), not using

heritage language with the child could lead to a loss of his or her cultural connectivity and identity”(Lim,

N. et al., 2018, p.2891). Many peoples’ lives are not cut and dry, they have heritage and culture. Families

of children with ASD could be immigrants from a different country with multiple languages, they could

live in a region where more than one language is commonly spoken. Asking parents of children with

autism to keep them monolingual when they live in a society that is so deeply ingrained with the idea that

more than one language should at least be understood on a basic level is unrealistic. It would cause
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children who already have enough communication problems and social isolation to feel even more limited

linguistically. It would cause rifts within their family relationships, especially if the family of the child

with ASD is monolingual in a language other than the language most used in their particular geographical

location (Jegatheesan, B., 2011).

It’s understandable that with all of the conflicting information available to parents regarding

multilingualism and autism, there would be hesitance to expose their child to a second language when

they already have a disorder relating to communication. However, it’s important to keep in mind that

“Children with ASD need to make social connections in as many ways as possible and language is the

key for establishing such relations”(Sendhilnathan, S. & Chengappa, S.K., 2020). Having a

communicative disorder just means it is all the more essential that you expose your child to language and

communication as much as possible to help them through their journey of lingual development. If a child

can’t swim, and you never put them in the water, how do you expect them to learn to swim? It’s the same

for learning a language, even in children with communicative disorders, simply shielding them from other

languages isn’t going to magically make them better at communicating. Consistently exposing them to

language, both in the classroom and at home, is what’s going to help them learn and grow as

communicators. And taking these steps within the classroom and at home is what’s going to make the

difference for these children. Getting better funding for the special education programs, incorporating

language intervention within these programs, providing language services for multilingual children, and

making sure that parents are aware that exposing their child to another language is not damaging; these

are all steps that need to be taken in order to secure the best possible environment for children with

autism.

References
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American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2021, from

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