Longitudinal study examines language proficiency and its impact on theory of mind in bilingual autistic and neurotypical children, suggesting growth over time.
The study examines how bilinguals’ languages of higher proficiency (LHP) and lower proficiency (LLP) correlate with daily-life Theory of Mind (ToM) in 137 White, bilingual typically developing (TD; 45% boys) and 107 White, bilingual autistic children (78% boys) aged 6 to 12. A subset of participants (28 TD, 43% boys; 21 autistic children, 76% boys) was reassessed approximately 1 year later. Age positively correlated with ToM in TD and autistic children, although the former outperformed the latter. In autistic children, but not TD peers, LHP and LLP were both positively associated with greater ToM skills. Longitudinal findings 1 year later confirmed this pattern, suggesting that bilingual autistic children continue to capitalize on both languages over time to support ToM development.
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Zuban et al. (2026) studied this question.
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