The Influence of Bilingual Language Exposure on the Narrative, Social and Pragmatic Abilities of School-Aged Children on the Autism Spectrum.

The study used ERRNI standard scores rather than a detailed analysis of each child's transcript, so it may miss finer differences. Social skills were measured by parent report, not direct observation, so conversational ability was not examined. Only children who could complete the narrative task were included, so findings may not apply to younger or more severely affected children on the autism spectrum. Language exposure was estimated from parent reports of home and school hours only, and did not include other environments or the language of intervention. The bilingual group included children with as little as 5% second-language exposure, which may have affected the bilingual/monolingual comparisons. Parents' own language proficiency and cognitive abilities were not measured, so these could have influenced children's language outcomes. There was no comparison group of neurotypically developing children or children with developmental language disorder or intellectual disability.

The supplied text reports funding by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. No other conflicts of interest are stated.

Do not read the nonliteral language finding as proof that bilingualism causes better pragmatic skills. It was an association with exposure proportion, and the main narrative and social comparisons showed no group difference.