Thanks so much to everyone!

DH and I speak English and his native language at home and struggled with what to do with our DS. He had major speech delays, some autistic and ADHD characteristics. We got very mixed advice from the specialists in his life, dev ped said stick to one language since he's having difficulty acquiring one, one SLP said do both languages and provided us with studies and literature about how bi- or multilingualism doesn't slow language development, etc. In the end we made a decision about what felt natural to us and that was to raise him bilingually. He's almost 5 and I am so glad we did. By now I know that even as he struggled so hard with expressive language and some pragmatics that he was still absorbing it all. He does well in both languages. He still has "issues", we still intervene, but I think he's benefitted from having both languages.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. thanks to everyone for your answers, those really help. One question though. If you initially spoke to your child in English only, how did you explain to him/her the switch to the other language? Thanks

OP, we enrolled our child in an bilingual immersion school at 4 yrs old and explained about learning another language in school and gradually started to incorporate Spanish at home. My child was initially upset about school (for about a month) and I did notice some slowing down in English acquisition but is back on track now (according to teachers, my observations and S&L testing).

Again, I think you should be clear what your child's language problems and skills are, by that I mean how is their receptive, expressive and pragmatic language? ASD kids are not the same, therefore a spectrum. My child consistently scores over the 90th percentile for receptive, low average for expressive and below average for pragmatic (he was diagnosed with Aspeger's) and bilingualism has increased his expressive language to average. Pragmatic is still a problem, but our team of medical experts and therapists agree that this would be the same in a monolingual environment. We work on social skills in S&L therapy to address this component of language. The other ASD child in my kid's class was diagnosed with autism and is moderately functioning. The child seems to have at least average receptive language skills and is doing well in an inclusion mainstream classroom (according to the mother and my cursory observations) but clearly has problems with expressive and pragmatic language. If my child was significantly language delayed in receptive (especially) and expressive language I would be cautious about introducing another language until they have caught up some more. I think you said your child is 3 so I believe you do have time as I am using 4 and 5 yr old children as an example.

OP, I'm a special educator, not a parent. I have seen kids show initial improvement in English when a second language was dropped, but that doesn't mean you can't add it back in once a child has some fluency and "gets" reciprocal communication. I'd start slowly and build up from there. Maybe start in the context of preferred activities so he has a familiar context (e.g. when reading a favorite story, or when he's playing in the tub, whatever he likes a lot). Songs are another great way to start to introduce kids to the rhythms and sounds of a language.

OP here. thanks to everyone for your answers, those really help. One question though. If you initially spoke to your child in English only, how did you explain to him/her the switch to the other language? Thanks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd recommend asking your SLP. We asked our SLP her opinion and upon her suggestion we started speaking English to him. My child has a long history of ear troubles which has passed but left him with a suspected auditory processing disorder. ASD might have similar problems with processing. It truly helped his processing and retrieval of sounds. We still continue our native language among us with my husband so he still gets some exposure to native language and I notice that he continues improving his skills in native language as well. We plan increasing his immersion after he turns 4 after his processing and retrieval gets better. Hope this helps. Good luck!

I can tell you from experience that SLPs usually have very little knowledge of language acquisition/bilingualism and that this "advice" reflects little more than American misconceptions about bilingualism. Eliminating/reducing a second language does not speed up solving problems present in L1...

Bilingualism is very beneficial to NT kids, but here we are talking about kids with a neurological disorder that makes speech/language acquisition very difficult for them, it's a completely different thing. I can tell you from experience that it does make a difference to eliminate the second language. My ASD kid started talking once we eliminated the second language: he was not talking before, even with the help of speech therapy, occupational therapy and VB programming. We decided to eliminate the second language after several months of therapy had made no difference, and as soon as we eliminate the second language, he started talking.

Anonymous wrote:I'm bilingual and moved here as a child. My parents moved back and live in their home country. I did not bother teaching my child my native language. DS has AS and attends a Chinese immersion language school. Neither my husband nor I speak Chinese but DS is doing very well.

I'm not sad about my son not knowing my native language at all. I rarely get to use it and most people in my country speak English and/or Chinese. I figure if my DS wants to learn it, he can. It's much easier than English or Mandarin.

We asked our SLP about being in an immersion program when DS was being evaluated for a diagnosis and according to her, as long as he receives services in English (understands the instruction) it does not make any difference. Next yredit K, he will be receiving supports /services bilingually.

Anonymous wrote:I'd recommend asking your SLP. We asked our SLP her opinion and upon her suggestion we started speaking English to him. My child has a long history of ear troubles which has passed but left him with a suspected auditory processing disorder. ASD might have similar problems with processing. It truly helped his processing and retrieval of sounds. We still continue our native language among us with my husband so he still gets some exposure to native language and I notice that he continues improving his skills in native language as well. We plan increasing his immersion after he turns 4 after his processing and retrieval gets better. Hope this helps. Good luck!

I can tell you from experience that SLPs usually have very little knowledge of language acquisition/bilingualism and that this "advice" reflects little more than American misconceptions about bilingualism. Eliminating/reducing a second language does not speed up solving problems present in L1...

I'm bilingual and moved here as a child. My parents moved back and live in their home country. I did not bother teaching my child my native language. DS has AS and attends a Chinese immersion language school. Neither my husband nor I speak Chinese but DS is doing very well.

I'm not sad about my son not knowing my native language at all. I rarely get to use it and most people in my country speak English and/or Chinese. I figure if my DS wants to learn it, he can. It's much easier than English or Mandarin.

I'd recommend asking your SLP. We asked our SLP her opinion and upon her suggestion we started speaking English to him. My child has a long history of ear troubles which has passed but left him with a suspected auditory processing disorder. ASD might have similar problems with processing. It truly helped his processing and retrieval of sounds. We still continue our native language among us with my husband so he still gets some exposure to native language and I notice that he continues improving his skills in native language as well. We plan increasing his immersion after he turns 4 after his processing and retrieval gets better. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Not the parent of a child with ASD, but our DS has learning challenges, ADHD, and anxiety. He too is in an immersion school and went to bilingual daycare. Trying to raise a SN child bilingually has its additional challenges but it is definitely doable. Perhaps the most important thing to do is ignore various professionals who may not be knowledgeable about bilingualism and counsel you that it's too challenging/confusing. In DS' case, he understands the second language perfectly but has a harder time speaking it. Reading and writing issues also manifest themselves in the second language -- just as they do in English, although there will be differences based on the nature of the second language. Good luck, OP!

OP, my son was diagnosed with Asperger's, so no language delay at an early age, just pragmatics. We enrolled him in an immersion school and he is doing well. We speak mostly English at home and he communicates mostly in Spanish at school. There is another child in his class that also has ASD and is moderately functioning, was language delayed (according to mom) and is still behind in speech (English and Spanish) compared to NT peers. The parents are bilingual. From my own observations (I volunteer a lot), the child has made a lot of progress in both languages. Our children both receive speech therapy in both languages (S&L therapist is bilingual). Bottom line, from experience, I don't think an autistic child will necessarily be confused. However, you should consult a developmental pediatrician and language therapist and see what they say. I also did some research on other countries and there are plenty of autistic kids that grow up in a bilingual environment, e.g. French Canada, Switzerland, and are not negatively impacted (according to research and case studies).

hello, we were there. I kept on speaking to DC in my native language. my take, and this is just what I felt at the time: if he was delayed anyways, and there was no supporting evidence that the other language would interfer with his speech, I just choose what worked for me. DC is about 1 year behind in speech, pretty much pragmatic language, but we hope that once he starts school again and continue in an inclusion class DC will get there.
I push my language at home only, when we are outside, if he responds to me in English I let him do it, as I want him to feel confident with his communications skills. he knows as many vocabulary in both languages, but preferes English, as all his peers and teachers speak to him in English.

perhaps if you take DC to an enrichment class where he is exposed and starts getting use to learning the language might help in the beginning, or introducing vocubalary with games, songs, games in the computer. children learn fast, I do not think is too late if you want to introduce him to the language. some ST will tell you that is better to stick to one language, some others think is makes no different. ours feels happy that no matter in what language, he is communicating and expressing his feelings.

good luck.

Hi. Our DC who is about to turn three and is autistic, has significantly progressed over a year and is very close to his peers in speech in English. We are very happy about it and are very proud of our child. But what really bothers me is that our family is bilingual, and our child doesn't know any of his mom and dad's native language except for a few words. He had no words when he was 2, and we were so scared we decided it's important to help him talk at least in English. Many people tell me it's fine if he speaks English only, but it's just so sad that he wouldn't be able to talk to his grandparents and other extended family or be exposed to our culture if he doesn't know the language. On the other side, Im worried introducing second language might cause confusion in him and make it harder for him to further progress in English. Is there anyone on this forum with a similar situation and what did you do?

Thank you!