Find out if Autistic children can and should learn languages. Learn what being bilingual does to the brain of the Autistic child.
Although English is one of the most popular languages in the world, knowing more languages has excellent advantages.
People still learn new languages despite easy access to Google Translate and other apps.
Lots of people are bilingual and grow up speaking more than one language.
This post discusses the benefits of speaking another language for your child’s brain.
You will also learn if learning another language or growing up in a bilingual home benefits your Autistic child.
The world is multilingual
Did you know that most of the world’s population speaks more than one language?
Moving around the world has never been easier and more accessible.
Many countries have people who came from somewhere else and settled there.
Let’s take France, for example.
There are lots of people there speaking Turkish or Arabic.
However, they also have their regional languages like Corsican or Alsatian.
English speaking countries
You probably have yet to realise that the US has 350 languages spoken on its territory, and 20% of students speak a language other than English.
In the US, each state develops its policies regarding teaching and language of instruction depending on the local context.
For example, Georgia and North Carolina implemented Dual Language programs where fifty per cent of instruction is in a language other than English.
It is their response to the local population’s needs. It reflects a very high number of Latinxs people in these states.
It is possible thanks to teachers being empathetic and recognising children’s cultural backgrounds using their home language as a tool to support learning.
Children have the right to be taught in a language they understand, and the mother tongue should be used as a resource to learn rather than an obstacle.
UK’s 2011 census disclosed that the official and most often used language in England is English.
Despite 90% of the population using it, many other languages are spoken there, and Punjabi, Urdu and Polish are some of them.
In England, at least one in five pupils has English as an additional language.
While working in school and researching this topic, I discovered that bilingual children who are fluent in English outperform their peers.
What is their advantage? Why are they scoring better in the academic domain? Let’s find out!
Advantages of learning another language
Executive functions
Being bilingual has cognitive advantages.
Speaking more than one language improves executive function skills like working memory.
Inhibition and task switching are more advanced in multilingual people.
Our brains get exercised the more we use them, and learning languages is an excellent exercise.
It helps with your executive functions and memory. I wrote a post about executive functions here.
Our brain remembers new vocabulary, connects words and uses them in different contexts.
Suppose your child learns a new language or is bilingual.
In that case, they can learn time management and multitasking by switching between the languages they know.
In today’s world, more people speak multiple languages than people who use only one.
Learning a new language or speaking more than one significantly affects our cognition.
Bilingual children can have better attention and task-switching than their monolingual peers.
Another executive function that is used when learning a new language is inhibition.
You must inhibit (ignore) the other you know to use one language.
The more you do it, the more your executive functions strengthen.
This cognitive control that comes with learning new languages also affects sensory processing.
Brain size
Interestingly, the ability to speak another language affects brain structure.
Some parts of the brain are bigger in people who learn another language early in childhood.
These parts are the areas where executive functioning takes place.
Another site is associated with sensory processing, especially the auditory cortex (where the hearing is located).
The bigger and denser area means better speech perception (understanding what someone is saying).
If they learn another language, then it is easier to learn more of them
Your child can gain attention to detail by learning a new language.
It will help them to learn yet another language faster and easier than someone learning a new language for the first time.
It was true for me! I have learned Spanish, my second foreign language, relatively quickly and easily.
To learn a new language, you need to focus on the information about it and reduce the interference from the languages you already know.
It is an excellent exercise for your brain and its executive functions.
Children who speak only one language are less skilled at inhibiting competing information.
It helps with understanding grammar
While learning a new language, children unconsciously become aware of the rules of grammar.
They realise that they cannot translate sentences word by word.
This way, they become aware of the order of words in the sentences.
When parents speak to a child in their home language (different from English), they make learning English even easier.
It makes your brain make some effort and learn new words and new grammar rules.
You can then transfer these skills and new knowledge and apply it using a different language.
It keeps you young
There is lots of research showing also that learning a new language or being multilingual can help with cognitive decline in older people.
Bilingualism can help protect against illnesses like Alzheimer’s.
Speaking several languages does not delay your child
Bilingual children develop in the same way and reach the same milestones as children who speak one language.
How fluent a child becomes in a second language depends on how much they learn and speak daily.
Autistic and bilingual? Should children on the Autism spectrum learn other languages?
Parents of autistic children are often confused and concerned about the possible effects of their children speaking more than one language.
Autistic children often experience difficulties with communicating.
Parents might be worried that exposing their children to another language will slow them down.
They worry that children might be overwhelmed trying to learn another language.
When bilingual parents raise their child with only one language- this affects the bond they may possibly have with their relatives and community and connections with their culture.
Autistic children can benefit from this cultural and social contact they would get from them.
Why should Autistic children learn another language?
Learning languages does not delay Autistic children
Current research shows that learning a foreign language or being bilingual (or multilingual)- does not cause language development delay in autistic children.
Unfortunately, many practitioners (doctors or educators) advise parents of autistic children against raising them as bilinguals.
Speaking another language will not cause them confusion or language delays.
Parents who live in a country that is different to their country of origin can be especially concerned.
They might worry that teaching their child their mother tongue will prevent them from participating fully in society.
They might be concerned that their child will miss out on things if they do not speak the host country’s language.
They may also worry that by speaking to their child in the host country’s language incorrectly, they will teach them the “wrong” version of it.
It can limit the interactions and communication they have with their children.
There is widespread misinformation and a lack of understanding of autism and the effects of bilingualism.
Bond with carers and community
Bilingual autistic children can experience stronger bonds and better communication with their parents, who use their native language at home,
They can also have increased opportunities for social interactions outside the home.
By speaking another language, they can socialise with extended family and people from the community, which can help develop their social skills.
Cognitive advantages
Autistic children might find it difficult sometimes to switch from one task to another.
Learning another language can help with it.
Being bilingual makes switching tasks easier.
Researchers have debated for years if the ability to speak more than one language has advantages for the functioning of our brain.
They have recently concluded that being bilingual does benefit our executive function skills.
The fact that a child (or any person) switches between languages unconsciously increase their cognitive flexibility.
It is valid for children with ASD and non-autistic kids.
To discover that, researchers used tests done with children.
Kids had to complete a task on a computer.
This task was about sorting objects (rabbits and boats) by colour and shape.
It turned out that bilingual autistic children performed slightly better than autistic children who spoke only one language.
It helps with communication and social interaction
Speaking more than one language is a tool that allows one to access lots of social and cultural activities and experiences.
Children on the ASD spectrum may often experience loneliness because of their difficulties with social communication.
Speaking another language could help broaden their interests and friends’ circles.
Being bilingual would also increase their self-esteem, confidence and feeling of identity.
I hope you can see all the advantages of speaking and learning different languages. Tell me in the comments if your child is bilingual or multilingual and what impact it has on them.
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