Should Parents Only Use One Language with Their Autistic Children? The Relations Between Multilingualism, Children's Social Skills, and Parent-Child Communication.
Maïte Franco, Andreia P Costa
PMID 38809475WHAT IT FOUND
Parents who communicated with their autistic child in a foreign language rather than their mother tongue felt significantly less comfortable and authentic.
However, the language used at home did not affect the children's social skills, suggesting parents should choose the language they feel most natural using.
Key findings
01There were no significant differences in children's social skills between families using only a mother tongue, only a foreign language, or combinations of both.
02Parents using only a foreign language reported feeling significantly less comfortable and less authentic when interacting with their child compared to parents using their mother tongue.
03Parents' proficiency in the language used to address their child correlated significantly with how authentic they felt and how freely they could express themselves.
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
The study relied entirely on parent reports for both the children's social skills and the parents' feelings, without independent verification of diagnoses or abilities. The sample was small (68 parents) and skewed towards highly educated participants (86.8% had secondary school diploma or higher). Most participants were of European origin, limiting generalizability to other cultural contexts. The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot track how language use and social skills develop over time. Language proficiency was self-reported by only one parent, despite other family members often being present.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg. No other conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of social skill differences as proof that multilingualism is beneficial for social outcomes. The study found no significant advantages for multilingual children either, only that the language choice did not negatively impact the measured social skills.