Relations Between Bilingualism and Autistic-Like Traits in a General Population Sample of Primary School Children.

ABSTRACT: Some evidence suggests that bilingualism improves communication and cognitive skills which are often impaired in autism. However, diagnosing autism in bilinguals may suffer a cultural bias, which can affect the investigation of bilingualism and autism. Therefore, the current study investigates relations between autistic-like traits (ALTs) and bilingualism in a general population sample of 394 children (M age = 8;3). Within the high-scoring group on the ALT measure, monolinguals had significantly higher ALT scores than bilinguals. There were no differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in the low-scoring group. Across the whole sample, age and structural language skills accounted for 35% variance in ALTs, while bilingualism had no effect on ALTs. Furthermore, structural language skill

SUBMITTER: Kascelan D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6546658 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature