Bilingualism and Me by Sarah Oudet
- Sep 20, 2025
- 3 min read
Today bilingual and bicultural families are the norm (1), making our families and communities more culturally and linguistically diverse! With this amazing mixity comes questions of language choices we as parents make for our children.
Do we each speak our dominant languages to our kids? Do we only speak the societal language to them? Do we prioritize English above all? How do we maintain minority heritage languages? Are bilingual schools/activities worth the extra effort? Should we expose our neurodivergent children to multiple languages? What even is bilingualism?
Most academic and professional bodies define bilingualism as the acquisition and/or use of
communicative skills in more than one language (2) . However, bilingualism is not concerned with equal levels of proficiency across languages. Here's what the most current research tells us about the impact of bilingualism on language and communication development for children with:
TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT. Bilingually exposed children reach early language
milestones at the same age as monolingual peers (3) . Typically developing children will
acquire additional language(s) without specialist support. They acquire these
communicative skills with varying degrees of proficiency, in oral and/or written forms, to
interact with speakers of one or more languages at home and in society. The belief that
exposure to two (or more) languages has or will ‘confuse’ our children is false. Code-
switching/translanguaging is common and not of concern.
ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT. Bilingual exposure does NOT delay or disrupt
communication development for neurodiverse children (4) . For example, bilingually
exposed autistic children perform similarly to, if not better than, their monolingual peers
in terms of expressive/receptive vocabulary (5) , gesture use (6) , and social communication
skills. In fact, amongst autistic children there is a positive influence of bilingual exposure
for cognitive and communication skills such as attention (7) , inhibitory control(8) , and maths (9) . Restricting our neurodivergent children’s natural language exposure may reduce
communication opportunities for them, possibly impeding their ability to learn robust
language structures, maximise academic success, and form familial relationships and
cultural identity (10).
The best way to help our children develop their communication skills is to give them our best examples – speak to them in the language(s) that feel most natural to you!
Stay tuned for an upcoming online talk with Sarah on this topic.
About the author:
Sarah Oudet is a clinical-academic speech-language therapist. Born in Singapore, grown in Australia, lived in England, and currently based in France, Sarah is a PhD candidate at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Her work centers on parent-led therapy models of specific support for young autistic children in culturally and linguistically diverse environments. She has three bilingual/bicultural young’uns of her own and a bunch of plants in varying degrees of health. She is also a wanna-be painter, lover of starch and Message member. To connect with her, please head on to https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahoudet/
References
1 Grosjean, François. Bilingual. Harvard University Press, 2010,
2 Stow, C., & Pert, S. (2015). SLT Assessment and Intervention : Best practice for children and young people in.
RCSLT Position Papers, 1–28.
3 Muszyńska, K., Krajewski, G., Dynak, A., Garmann, N. G., Romøren, A. S. H., Łuniewska, M., Alcock, K., Katsos, N.,
Kołak, J., Simonsen, H. G., Hansen, P., Krysztofiak, M., Sobota, K., & Haman, E. (2025). Bilingual children reach early
language milestones at the same age as monolingual peers. Journal of Child Language.
4 Jaumont, F. (2017). The bilingual revolution: The future of education is in two languages. Calec.
5 Hastedt, I., Eisenhower, A., Sheldrick, R. C., & Carter, A. S. (2023). Bilingual and Monolingual Autistic Toddlers:
Language and Social Communication Skills. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53(6), 2185–2202.
6 Zhou, V., Munson, J. A., Greenson, J., Hou, Y., Rogers, S., & Estes, A. M. (2019). An exploratory longitudinal
study of social and language outcomes in children with autism in bilingual home environments. Autism : The
International Journal of Research and Practice, 23(2), 394–404. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361317743251.
7 Sharaan, S., Fletcher-Watson, S., & MacPherson, S. E. (2021). The Impact of Bilingualism on the Executive
Functions of Autistic Children: A Study of English–Arabic Children. Autism Research, 14(3), 533–544.
8 Montgomery, L., Chondrogianni, V., Fletcher-Watson, S., Rabagliati, H., Sorace, A., & Davis, R. (2022).
Measuring the Impact of Bilingualism on Executive Functioning Via Inhibitory Control Abilities in Autistic Children.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52(8), 3560–3573. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10803-021-05234-
Y/TABLES/6.
9 Vanegas, S. B. (2019). Academic skills in children with autism spectrum disorders with monolingual or bilingual
experience. Autism and Developmental Language Impairments, 4.
10 Beauchamp, M. L. H., & MacLeod, A. A. N. (2017). Bilingualism in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Making
Evidence Based Recommendations. Canadian Psychology, 58(3). https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000122.
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