Abstract
There is evidence that autistic children may have reduced executive function skills, contributing to day-to-day difficulties, but much remains unknown regarding the influence of bilingualism. We investigated its influence on sustained attention, interference control, flexible switching and working memory, in Arabic-English autistic (n = 27) and typically developing peers (n = 53) children, aged 5 to 12 years old. Parents and teachers completed rating measures assessing children’s daily EF abilities. Results showed generalized positive effects for bilingual autistic children relative to their monolingual peers across all EF domains, but using parent ratings only. The findings indicate that bilingualism does not negatively impact the executive function skills of autistic children, and that it might mitigate difficulties faced on a day-to-day basis.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2224–2235 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders |
Volume | 52 |
Early online date | 6 Jun 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2022 |
Keywords
- Dual language
- Second language exposure
- Autism
- Cognition