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

We examined the narrative abilities of bilingual and monolingual children on the autism spectrum (AS), whether bilinguals presented stronger social and pragmatic language abilities compared to monolinguals, and the link between narrative, social, and pragmatic language abilities.The narrative, social, and pragmatic language skills of school-aged bilinguals (n = 54) and monolinguals (n = 80) on the AS were assessed using normed measures. Language exposure was estimated through a parent questionnaire.Bilinguals performed similarly to monolinguals on measures of narrative, social, and pragmatic language skills. However, balanced bilinguals performed better on a nonliteral language task.Overall, results indicate that bilingual children on the AS can become as proficient in using language as monolinguals and may enjoy a bilingual advantage.

Barriers to access and utilization of healthcare services for minority-language speakers with neurodevelopmental disorders: A scoping review.

Introduction: Minority-language speakers in the general population face barriers to accessing healthcare services. This scoping review aims to examine the barriers to healthcare access for minority-language speakers who have a neurodevelopmental disorder. Our goal is to inform healthcare practitioners and policy makers thus improving healthcare services for this population. Inclusion criteria: Information was collected from studies whose participants include individuals with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) who are minority-language speakers, their family members, and healthcare professionals who work with them. We examined access to healthcare services across both medical and para-medical services. Method: Searches were completed using several databases. We included all types of experimental, quasi-experimental, observational and descriptive studies, as well as studies using qualitative methodologies. Evidence selection and data extraction was completed by two independent reviewers and compared. Data extraction focused on the barriers to accessing and to utilizing healthcare for minority-language speakers with NDDs. The search process and ensuing results were fully reported using a diagram from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses extension for scoping review. Results: Following the database search, a total of 28 articles met our final selection criteria and two articles were hand-picked based on our knowledge of the literature, for a total of 30 articles. These studies revealed that minority-language speakers with NDDs and their families experience several barriers to accessing and utilizing healthcare services. These barriers, identified at the Systems, Provider and Family Experience levels, have important consequences on children's outcomes and families' well-being. Discussion: While our review outlined several barriers to access and utilization of healthcare services for minority-language speakers with NDDs and their families, our findings give rise to concrete solutions. These solutions have the potential to mitigate the identified barriers, including development and implementation of policies and guidelines that support minority-language speakers, practitioner training, availability of referral pathways to appropriate services, access to tools and other resources such as interpretation services, and partnership with caregivers. Further research needs to shift from describing barriers to examining the efficacy of the proposed solutions in mitigating and eliminating identified barriers, and ensuring equity in healthcare for minority-language speakers with NDDs.

Bilingualism in School-Aged Children with ASD: A Pilot Study.

Preschool-aged bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can keep pace with their monolingual peers with ASD. However, can older children with ASD continue to do so as language demands become greater? Also, can they reach language levels similar to those of neurotypically developing (ND) bilingual children? The current study compares the language abilities of 3 school-aged bilingual children with ASD to those of 2 monolingual peers, and 19 ND bilingual and 12 ND monolingual peers. Using cluster analyses, we found that bilingual children with ASD had similar language to those of monolingual children with ASD and neurotypically developing bilingual and monolingual children. Results suggest that bilingual children with ASD can keep pace with their peers with similar intellectual abilities.