Autism and bilingualism

Learning more than one language

Learning more than one language is good! Many children speak more than one language.

Bilingualism is the ability to understand and / or use two or more languages.

The term therefore includes ‘multilingualism’, which is the knowledge and / or use of several languages

Being bilingual is an advantage to any child at any age. Being bilingual does not make learning each language harder.

Please read the following information about learning more than one language:

Your home language is the most important.
Learning two languages won’t confuse your child but it may take them a little longer to pick up.
Your child will be ready to learn English when they are good at using their home language.
Switching from one language to another shows your child knows both languages well.
Avoid ‘teaching’ English and making your child speak English – this can put them off talking.
Your child will learn English from being around other English speakers, e.g. in nursery or at local groups.
Don’t worry if your child is quiet when starting nursery/playgroup – this is common when learning a new language.

We strongly recommend talking to your child in your home language, or your most confident and comfortable language.

What is autism?

Being autistic means experiencing the world around us in a different way than someone who is not autistic.

It is thought that more than 1 in 100 people are autistic. Autism is a type of neurodivergence meaning that autistic people can experience differences with attention, social interaction and communication, sensory processing and learning.

Autism affects people in different ways. Like all people, autistic people have their own strengths and areas of need. Please watch the video below created by the North East Autism Society for more information about what autism means.

What is Autism?

If you open the video and click Settings > Subtitles > Auto Translate then you can watch the video with subtitles in various languages.

Autism West Midlands have information leaflets about autism in the following languages.

Please visit the following website for important things to know about autism and bilingualism.

Information is available in: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, Greek, Polish, Punjabi, Romania, Scottish Gaelic, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Welsh.

https://autism-bilingualism.github.io/resources/

You can also watch the following video “can autistic people learn and use several languages”