Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have difficulty switching from one task to another. But bilingualism seems to bring certain benefits to these children, according to results of a study published in the medical journal Child Development.
Researchers at McGills University in Canada came to this conclusion after comparing how easily 40 children between the ages of six and nine, with or without autism spectrum disorder, who were monolingual or bilingual, could switch between tasks in a computer test. There were ten children in each category.
Blue rabbits or red boats
Researchers first asked children to sort a single object appearing on a computer screen by color (i.e. sort blue bunnies and red boats by color) and change their shape (blue bunnies and red boats by shape regardless of their color).
Researchers have found that bilingual children with ASD performed significantly better on the more complex part of the task transfer test compared to children with ASD who were monolingual. It’s a finding that has potentially important implications for families of children with ASD.
“It is essential to have more solid evidence for families to use when making important parenting and education decisions, as they are often told that exposing a child with ASD to more than one language will only aggravate linguistic difficulties,” explains Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero, author of the study.
Despite the small sample size, the researchers say there is a real benefit to bilingualism in autistic children and should be studied further. Scientists plan to follow these children with ASD over the next three to five years to see how they develop. Researchers want to understand if the benefits seen in the lab can also be verified in everyday life as children get older.
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