Do Spanish-English bilingual children outperform monolingual English-speaking children on executive function tasks in early childhood? A propensity score analysis.

Abstract

Despite much research examining whether bilingual individuals demonstrate superior executive function (EF) skills compared to monolinguals, the purported bilingual advantage remains controversial. One potential reason for discrepant findings across studies examining the bilingual advantage is the difficulty in matching monolingual and bilingual groups on important confounding variables that are related to EF. To address this limitation of prior research, we used a propensity score matching approach to evaluate the presence of the bilingual advantage in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011. Consistent with recent theories of EF development; we hypothesized that before matching, we would observe bilingual advantages on report-but not performance-based measures of EF. However, we expected that after matching bilingual and monolingual children on a comprehensive set of covariates there would be no group differences in EF. We matched bilingual Spanish-English and monolingual English kindergarteners on a comprehensive set of child-and school-level covariates and conducted a sensitivity analysis to evaluate whether results were sensitive to unobserved confounds. After matching groups (n = 252 matched pairs of monolingual and bilingual children), bilinguals had greater teacher-rated inhibitory control and attentional focus than did monolinguals; however, only the effect for inhibitory control was robust to unobserved confounds. In contrast, no effects of bilingualism were observed for performance-based measures of working memory or cognitive flexibility. Results are discussed in the context of recent theoretical models of EF development in early childhood. Educational Impact and Implications StatementRecent theory suggests that children's engagement in goal-directed behavior (e.g., sharing toys with friends) directly influences their cognitive development. In addition, there is debate over the extent to which the unique experiences of bilingual children afford advantages in cognitive development. Our findings suggest that young bilingual children's unique experiences lead to greater ability to use cognitive skills to engage in goal-directed behavior, when compared to monolingual children. Therefore, bilingualism may have important influences on cognitive development that can help support children's success in school and beyond.

Promoting Multilingual Skills in Children with Autism: Parent and Teacher Perspectives on Teaching ESL

“…It is crucial to provide efficient language learning and teaching methods for children with ASD. Research indicates that bilingual children who are developing typically may experience cognitive benefits, including enhanced attentional control and behavioral regulation, as a result of switching between languages (Castro & Prishker, 2019;Goodrich et al, 2022;Kircher et al, 2022;Nolte et al, 2021;Titone & Tiv, 2023). Thus, advocating for multilingualism is essential for both neurotypical children and those with ASD.…”