What you should know about bilingualism and autism

: Published: 18 June 2026

The Autism, Bilingualism, Cognitive and Communicative Development (ABCCD) group of the University of Fribourg focuses on both Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders today, and bilingualism, which is currently more common than monolingualism. We caught up with Prof. Dr. Stephanie Durrleman, Head of the ABCCD, and she explained that her videos communicate their scientific findings on multilingualism in children with and without autism in accessible terms.

What has been the inspiration?
My interest in this topic came from two observations. Many multilingual families of autistic children were being advised to stop speaking their home language and switch to the majority language. Parents often found this distressing because it could mean giving up the language in which they felt most comfortable communicating with their child and extended family. At the same time, they worried that continuing to use their native language might somehow harm their child.

I was also familiar with research suggesting that bilingualism can benefit certain aspects of development in some children without autism. Since some of these same areas are often affected in autism, I wondered whether the recommendation to avoid bilingualism was not only unsupported by evidence, but potentially steering families in the wrong direction.