Relations Between Bilingualism and Autistic-Like Traits in a General Population Sample of Primary School Children.
Draško Kašćelan, Napoleon Katsos, Jenny L Gibson
PMID 30976960WHAT IT FOUND
In UK primary school children, speaking two languages was not linked to overall autistic-like traits.
Speech, meaning and coherence skills were more closely linked to traits. A lower score in high-scoring bilinguals did not hold across the sample.
Key findings
01There was no difference in the proportion of monolinguals and bilinguals among children with high or low autistic-like traits.
02Across the whole sample, bilingual versus monolingual status did not significantly improve prediction of autistic-like traits.
03In the high-scoring group, bilingual children had lower autistic-like trait scores than monolingual children.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Causality cannot be concluded from these data, so a link between structural language and autistic-like traits is not proof that one affects the other. Children were not diagnosed with autism, and the outcome was a parent-report trait score rather than a clinical diagnosis. The bilingual group was heterogeneous and mostly English-dominant, with limited exposure to two languages, so results may not apply to balanced bilingual communities. The high-scoring and low-scoring groups were small, which makes the subgroup finding less reliable. Caregivers completed questionnaires in English, and some parents may not have English as a first language, which could affect reports. Communication scores came from parent report and may not capture abilities in all languages. Bilingual families had higher caregiver education and SES composite scores than monolingual families, which may affect comparisons.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Gates Cambridge Trust and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the lower scores in the high-scoring bilingual group as proof that bilingualism reduces autistic-like traits. That group was small, and bilingual status did not improve prediction of traits across the whole sample.