Social Communication Across Language Environments in Nonverbal Children with ASD from English and non-English Speaking Families

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of social communication acts exhibited by non-verbal preschool-aged children across different language environments. Children from English and non-English speaking backgrounds were exposed to social interactions with a bilingual interventionist who interacted with the children in a home and world language. Results of this study indicated that there were differences in social communication acts across participants, but not within participants across language environments. In this study, the children did not appear to discriminate between language environments, which supports previous research suggesting that there are no harmful effects in exposing children to more than one language. Implications of the findings, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.