Dual-Language Communication and Social-Cognitive Skills in Bilingual Children with ASD

在美国，每5个孩子中就有1个在说外语的家庭长大 而不是英语。对于这些孩子来说，发展双语技能将使他们能够与家人交流 英语能力有限的成员，与讲英语的老师和同龄人在一起。然而，对于儿童来说， 对于患有自闭症谱系障碍(Asd)的患者，关于如何促进他们的双语能力的研究很有限。 发展。专业人士和父母经常认为，学习两门语言也会是 具有挑战性，尤其是对于口语技能很低的儿童。虽然过去的几项研究 十年来的研究表明，接触双语对儿童的语言发展没有不利影响 ASD，这些研究主要集中在英语习得上，而不是考察 促进两种语言的发展。此外，双语研究通常排除了患有 口头表达能力极低/较低。提议的顺序混合方法项目将新的重点放在 自闭症儿童及其家庭双语体验的变异性。它试图找出因素 与儿童的两种语言技能以及他们的社会认知技能，如视角-- 接受和认知灵活性。量化阶段将包括60个有孩子的西班牙语家庭 患有自闭症(4-6岁)，包括言语不多的儿童。第一个目标是确定来源的特征 自闭症儿童经历的双语环境类型的差异(例如，不同的 来自照顾者和治疗师的语言；来自不同照顾者的不同语言；通过 双语照顾者；随着时间的推移语言选择的变化)。第二个目标是检查预测因素 儿童的双语交流和社会认知技能，包括数量和语境的作用 西班牙的曝光率。在与30个家庭的子集进行的定性阶段中，第三个目标是解释 关于家庭观点、优先事项、经历和挑战的量化结果 语言选择和支持服务。这项工作的长期目标是与家庭和 服务提供商开发支持双语家庭的干预措施，并促进语言和社会- 自闭症儿童的认知发展。这份职业发展提案包括 来自心理学、沟通障碍和公共卫生的专家导师团队。培训目标 专注于对患有自闭症的少言寡语儿童进行研究，混合方法，并使用社区- 以参与性研究为基础，制定和评估干预措施。的研究目标和培训目标 这一职业发展奖反映了NIDCD在语音、演讲、 和语言，包括改善未充分研究人群的诊断、治疗和预防 (优先领域3)和通过社区研究改善人类交流成果 (优先领域4)。

Slightly over 1 in 5 children in the United States are growing up in a household that speaks a language other than English. For these children, developing bilingual skills will allow them to communicate both with family members who have limited English skills and with English-speaking teachers and peers. However, for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is limited research about how to facilitate their bilingual development. Professionals and parents have often assumed that learning two languages would be too challenging, especially for children with minimal spoken language skills. While several studies over the past decade have demonstrated that bilingual exposure is not detrimental for language development in children with ASD, these studies have focused mostly on the acquisition of English rather than examining factors that promote development of both languages. Furthermore, bilingual studies have generally excluded children with minimal/low verbal skills. The proposed sequential mixed-methods project places a new emphasis on variability within the bilingual experiences of children with ASD and their families. It seeks to identify factors associated with children’s skills in both languages, as well as their social-cognitive skills such as perspective- taking and cognitive flexibility. The quantitative phase will include 60 Spanish-speaking families with children with ASD (ages 4-6), including children who are minimally verbal. The first aim is to characterize sources of variation in the types of bilingual language environments experienced by children with ASD (e.g., different languages from caregivers vs. therapists; different languages from different caregivers; code-switching by bilingual caregivers; changes in language choices over time). The second aim is to examine predictors of children’s dual-language communication and social-cognitive skills, including the role of quantity and contexts of Spanish exposure. In a qualitative phase conducted with a subset of 30 families, the third aim is to interpret the quantitative findings in reference to family perspectives, priorities, experiences, and challenges with language choices and support services. The long-term goal of this work is to collaborate with families and service providers to develop interventions that support bilingual families and promote the linguistic and social- cognitive development of children across the autism spectrum. This career development proposal includes an expert team of mentors from Psychology, Communication Disorders, and Public Health. The training goals focus on conducting research with minimally verbal children with ASD, mixed methods, and using community- based participatory research to develop and evaluate interventions. The research aims and training goals of this career development award reflect current priorities in the strategic plan of the NIDCD for Voice, Speech, and Language, including Improving Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention in Understudied Populations (Priority Area 3) and Improving Outcomes for Human Communication through community-based research (Priority Area 4).