"It's Like Stealing What Should be Theirs." An Exploration of the Experiences and Perspectives of Parents and Educational Practitioners on Hebrew-English Bilingualism for Jewish Autistic Children.
David Ariel Sher, Jenny L Gibson, Wendy V Browne
PMID 34655375WHAT IT FOUND
Parents and educators in Jewish schools rejected the idea that autistic children should be raised monolingual.
They argued that excluding Hebrew causes social alienation and spiritual harm, and reported that autistic children often learn this second language successfully.
Key findings
01Participants described forced monolingualism as an injustice that alienates autistic children from their families and community rituals.
02Most practitioners and parents in the study supported teaching Hebrew to autistic children, with many schools adopting this as a default position rather than excluding them.
03Participants reported that autistic children often acquired Hebrew proficiency with relative ease, challenging the belief that autism prevents second-language learning.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included UK-based participants, so findings may not apply to other countries or cultural contexts. Most participants were religiously observant, which may overstate the importance of Hebrew compared to the general Jewish population. The study relied on adult perspectives (parents and teachers) and did not include the views of the autistic children themselves. Data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced participants' experiences or the method of data collection.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the participants' positive reports of bilingual acquisition as evidence that all autistic children will easily learn a second language. This is a qualitative study of experiences and attitudes, not a controlled trial of language outcomes.