The impact of bilingualism on the narrative ability and the executive functions of children with autism spectrum disorders

Peristeri, Eleni; Baldimtsi, Eleni; Ανδρέου, Μαρία; Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria

doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2020.105999

Cited by 68 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…The overall findings of this study show that bilingualism has a positive effect on the mentalizing skills of children with ASD, which is in line with other preliminary work on this topic (Baldimtsi et al 2020;Peristeri et al 2020). Furthermore, the study contributed to the identification of both linguistic and cognitive markers of the ToM advantage in bilingual children with ASD.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…However, when it comes to the low-verbal ToM task, the picture is different since the bilingual group with ASD outperformed their monolingual peers in the accuracy measure of the task's mentalistic trials. The verbal load of the ToM tasks distinguished between the two groups, implying that this asymmetry may be attributed to the language demands of the unexpected transfer and unexpected content tasks that have been extensively reported to compromise children's performance in mentalizing tasks (e.g., Burnel et al 2018;Durrleman 2020;Durrleman and Franck 2015;Peristeri et al 2020). Interestingly, the two groups did not differ in the accuracy measure of the low-verbal ToM task's mechanistic condition (>75% accuracy for both groups), which suggests that the children with ASD had an accurate understanding of what they were perceiving physically, and that the locus of impairment for the monolingual children with ASD lied in their ability to navigate the social world and not the physical environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, such a benefit was expected to be mostly evident on the low-verbal ToM task, since we hypothesized that bilingual ASD children's performance in the verbal ToM tasks would be confounded by the tasks' language demands. Furthermore, based on previous studies showing that bilingualism boosts EF in both TD children (Andreou and Tsimpli 2020;Andreou 2015;Bialystok 2015;Carlson and Meltzoff 2008) and children with ASD (Baldimtsi et al 2020;Peristeri et al 2020), we expected that bilingual children with ASD would exhibit superior performance to the monolingual group with ASD in the 2-back working memory task. Finally, following Meir and Novogrodsky's (2019) findings, we expected bilingual children with ASD to be similar to their monolingual peers on overall sentence repetition scores.…”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, and Syntax in Bilingual Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

et al. 2020

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Impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM) are a core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ToM may be enhanced by various factors, including bilingualism, executive functions (EF), and complex syntax. This work investigates the language-cognition interface in ASD by exploring whether ToM can be enhanced by bilingualism, whether such ToM boosts would be due to EF or syntax, and whether routes to mentalizing would differ between bilinguals and monolinguals on the spectrum. Twenty-seven monolingual Greek-speaking and twenty-nine bilingual Albanian-Greek children with ASD were tested on ToM reasoning in verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks, an executive function 2-back task, and a sentence repetition task. Results revealed that bilingual children with ASD performed better than monolinguals with ASD in the low-verbal ToM and the 2-back tasks. In the sentence repetition task, bilinguals scored higher than monolinguals in complex sentences, and specifically in adverbials and relatives. Regarding the relations between ToM, EF, and sentence repetition, the monolingual group’s performance in the verbal ToM tasks was associated with complement syntax, whereas, for the bilingual children with ASD, performance in both verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks was associated with EF and adverbial clause repetition. The overall pattern of results suggests that mentalizing may follow distinct pathways across the two groups.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, and Syntax in Bilingual Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

et al. 2020

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“…This may consequently result in more effective inhibition of one's personal knowledge during a ToM task. Closely related to the previous study, Peristeri, Baldimtsi, Andreou, and Tsimpli's (2020) [29] findings reveal that bilingual children with ASD outperformed their monolingual peers with ASD working memory skills.…”

Section: Theory Of Mind Language and Executive Functionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Theory of Mind in ADHD. A Proposal to Improve Working Memory through the Stimulation of the Theory of Mind

Cuenca

Romero-González²,

Sanchéz³

2020

IJERPH

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The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between Theory of Mind (ToM), Working Memory (WM), and Verbal Comprehension (VC). Performance of these variables was evaluated in 44 elementary students (6–12 years) diagnosed with ADHD. Their performance in all variables was collected through the Neuropsychological Battery (NEPSY-II) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV. The results showed that fifty percent of the participants were below the 25th percentile in ToM and that this low performance was not related to age. In addition, analyses showed statistically significant relationships between WM, VC, and ToM. Analysis of the effect of WM and VC on ToM showed that only WM explained the variance in participant performance in ToM. These results led us to raise the need to include ToM among the skills to be stimulated in programs for the treatment of ADHD, accompanying other skills related to social adaptation that are usually included in such programs. Likewise, considering that ToM implies putting into practice skills such as considering different points of view, attending to relevant aspects of the context, making decisions, inferring mental states, and predicting behaviors, we believe that through the stimulation of ToM, WM would also be stimulated.

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“…To recognize their experience, they should mentally manipulate the acquired contents (i.e., who, what, where and when) and the connections made among the motor actions performed. This is often difficult in children with high-functioning ASD due to the presence of deficits in executive functions [3,4], in social perception [5] and in narrative and pragmatic skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral and Autonomic Responses in Treating Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: Clinical and Phenomenological Insights from Two Case Reports

Billeci

Caterino²,

Tonacci

et al. 2020

Brain Sciences

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In this study, we aimed to evaluate the process applied in subjects with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to elaborate and communicate their experiences of daily life activities, as well as to assess the autonomic nervous system response that subtend such a process. This procedure was evaluated for the first time in two eight-year-old girls with high-functioning ASDs. The subjects performed six months of training, based on the cognitive–motivational–individualized (c.m.i.®) approach, which mainly consisted in building domestic procedures and re-elaborating acquired experiences through drawing or the use of icons made by the children. Together with behavioral observations, the response of the autonomic nervous system during such re-elaboration was recorded. A change in communicative and interactive competences was observed, moving from a condition of spontaneity to one in which the girls were engaged in relating their experiences to a parent. Autonomic response highlighted how, in communicating their own experiences, they achieved a state of cognitive activation, which enabled a greater communicative and emotional connection with the interlocutor. This is a proof-of-concept study on the application of the c.m.i.®, which needs to be extensively validated in the clinical setting.

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The impact of bilingualism on the narrative ability and the executive functions of children with autism spectrum disorders

Cited by 68 publications

References 84 publications

Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, and Syntax in Bilingual Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Theory of Mind, Executive Functions, and Syntax in Bilingual Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Theory of Mind in ADHD. A Proposal to Improve Working Memory through the Stimulation of the Theory of Mind

Behavioral and Autonomic Responses in Treating Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: Clinical and Phenomenological Insights from Two Case Reports

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