Background and aims

Although bilingualism is a common worldwide phenomenon, limited research has considered the experiences of children with autism growing up in bilingual environments. Here, we investigated the potential influence of parental bilingualism, and native vs. non-native language use, on responsiveness to children’s communication attempts during parent–child interactions where the child had autism. Specifically, we investigated the amount of parent responses to child verbal communication (frequency) and the promptness of these responses (temporal synchrony).

Methods

Participants were 22 monolingual and 20 bilingual parents and their children with autism aged 2–6 years, recruited from a multicultural, metropolitan city where English is the dominant language. Extending from our previous report on this sample, we identified the frequency and temporal synchrony of parent responses from filmed 10-minute free-play sessions. Monolingual parents were videoed during one free-play session in English. Bilingual parents were videoed during two free-play sessions; one in their native language and one in English. We compared the frequency and temporal synchrony of parental responses across monolingual and bilingual parent groups and, for bilingual parents, across native vs. non-native (English) language interaction samples. Finally, we examined how other measures of bilingual parents’ non-native language proficiency were associated with interaction responsiveness measures.

Results

When using their native language, bilingual parents demonstrated reduced frequency of responsiveness (even when controlling for opportunities provided by the child) and less temporal synchrony to child communication compared to English-speaking monolingual parents. Bilingual parents were also less frequently responsive (but not less temporally synchronous) during their native- compared to during their non-native (English) language interactions. Moreover, for bilingual parents, more frequent responsiveness to child communication bids when interacting in non-native English was associated with greater assessed English vocabulary knowledge.

Conclusions

In this sample, use of non-native English did not appear to adversely affect how often, or how quickly, bilingual parents responded to their children’s verbal communication bids. However, nor did we find evidence of a native-language advantage. Rather, during English-language interactions, when these bilingual parents were responsive towards their children, this was on par with rates and timing of responsiveness shown by English-speaking monolinguals. This may partly be explained by bilinguals’ non-native language proficiency, and habitual use/personal dominance patterns.

Implications

These data suggest no definitive drawback of non-native language use for synchronous responsiveness by bilingual parents interacting with young children with autism. However, our data also serve to highlight the complex, multifaceted nature of adult bilingualism, and indicate the need for more research – with large, well-characterised samples – to permit strong conclusions concerning how parental language-use choices may influence children’s natural learning environments, including in the context of autism and developmental language impairments.

中文翻译：

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非母语能力可能会影响双语父母对自闭症幼儿的反应：一份简短报告

背景和目标

虽然双语是一种普遍的世界现象，但有限的研究考虑了在双语环境中成长的自闭症儿童的经历。在这里，我们调查了在儿童患有自闭症的亲子互动过程中，父母双语以及母语与非母语使用对儿童交流尝试的反应的潜在影响。具体来说，我们调查了父母对孩子语言交流的反应数量（频率）和这些反应的及时性（时间同步）。

方法

参与者是 22 名单语父母和 20 名双语父母及其 2-6 岁的自闭症儿童，他们来自以英语为主要语言的多元文化大都市。从我们之前关于这个样本的报告中扩展，我们确定了父母在拍摄的 10 分钟自由游戏会话中做出反应的频率和时间同步性。在一次英语自由游戏中，单语父母被录了下来。双语父母在两次自由游戏中被录影；一种是他们的母语，另一种是英语。我们比较了单语和双语父母群体的父母反应的频率和时间同步性，以及双语父母在母语与非母语（英语）语言互动样本中的反应频率和时间同步性。最后，

结果

与说英语的单语父母相比，双语父母在使用他们的母语时表现出反应频率降低（即使在控制孩子提供的机会时）和与孩子交流的时间同步性降低。与非母语（英语）语言互动相比，双语父母在母语互动中的反应频率也较低（但时间同步性并不少）。此外，对于双语父母来说，当以非母语英语进行互动时，对儿童交流标语的更频繁响应与评估的英语词汇知识更多有关。

结论

在这个样本中，使用非母语英语似乎不会对双语父母对孩子的口头交流出价做出反应的频率或速度产生不利影响。然而，我们也没有找到母语优势的证据。相反，在英语语言互动期间，当这些双语父母对他们的孩子做出反应时，这与说英语的单语父母所表现出的反应速度和时间相当。这可能部分是由双语者的非母语熟练程度和习惯使用/个人支配模式来解释的。

启示

这些数据表明，双语父母与自闭症幼儿互动时使用非母语对同步反应没有明确的缺点。然而，我们的数据也有助于突出成人双语的复杂、多方面的性质，并表明需要进行更多研究——使用大量、特征明确的样本——以得出关于父母语言使用选择如何影响儿童自然学习环境的有力结论。 ，包括在自闭症和发育性语言障碍的情况下。