Autism and Bilingualism: Languages in the Autistic Community

Half the world’s population is bilingual, meaning that theoretically, half the autistic population should be as well.

However, unfounded stereotypes and stigma still prevent many autistic people from learning several languages at home or at school.

In this talk, I will share my research findings describing
a) the experiences of parents of autistic bilingual children,
b) the “effect” of bilingualism on the mental skills of autistic children and adults,
c) the real-life experiences of autistic bilingual people, and
d) the resources my team and I have created to better support autistic people, their families, and the professionals who work with them.

Dr Bérengère Digard is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Edinburgh researching neurodiversity.
While she is currently focusing on aphantasia and hyperphantasia, most of her research so far, including her PhD research, focused on understanding how bilingualism shapes the life, mind, and brain of autistic people.

This is the website Bérengère and her colleagues made https://autism-bilingualism.com/index.html

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