Understanding the social cognitive profiles of autistic bilinguals

Autistic people experience difficulties navigating the social world - especially when interacting with non- autistic people - which impact their quality of life (Kim & Bottema-Beutel, 2019; Mason et al., 2018). These difficulties are linked with differences in social cognition, the processes used to perceive, understand, and respond to social information (Happé et al., 2017). Social cognition is used for social interactions by everybody, every day. Its development relies on social experiences and language input (Garfield et al., 2001), and recent findings suggest it is stimulated by bilingualism (Schroeder, 2018).

Still, the relationship between bilingualism and social cognition is unclear, as neither bilingualism nor social cognition is homogenous. Bilingualism is a skill shared by half the world's population (Grosjean, 2010), and refers to a wide range of profiles. Do all forms of bilingualism shape social cognition the same way? Moreover, social cognition includes several mental mechanisms (Happé et al., 2017). Are all these processes sensitive to the effect of bilingualism? More importantly, does this relationship between bilingualism and social cognition exist in autism?

We know bilingualism is beneficial for non-autistic people, but before my PhD, little research had measured its effect in autism. Added to unfounded concerns about bilingualism in autism, this leads to autistic people being routinely excluded from additional language learning (Hampton et al., 2017). For example, bilingual parents of autistic children are often advised to raise their child monolingually, even if this can increase the child's feelings of isolation (Park, 2014). However, the few findings available show that bilingualism has no detrimental effect on the development of autistic children, and could even help with some specific skills (Wang et al., 2018). Is social cognition one of them?

I explored this question at three levels: life, mind, and brain. After describing the diversity of bilingual experiences in autism, I found that bilingualism is linked with higher self-rated social life quality for autistic adults (Digard et al., 2020). I also found that bilingual autistic adults themselves considered that being bilingual had brought them more opportunities, had helped them with their social communication skills, and had increased their self-confidence (Nolte et al., in press). I then showed how bilingualism shapes perspective-taking, a social cognitive process used to represent in our mind what other people think. I found that the positive effect of bilingualism occurs in childhood and is still visible in adulthood, in autism and typical development alike. Lastly, I found that in autism and typical development, early bilingualism also shapes the brain activity supporting perspective-taking.

My thesis is the first to show how early bilingualism shapes social cognition in autism. It was examined by Professor Francesca Happé, a world expert on social cognition in autism. I completed this thesis with no corrections.

The Fellowship will consolidate my research by allowing me to conduct an ambitious, yet achievable, range of activities that will prepare me for the next phase of my academic career. I aim to publish three articles based on my thesis and PhD data, and I will disseminate my findings within and outwith academia at conferences and via outreach activities with stakeholders (such as educators and policymakers) to ensure the real-world impact of my research. I will acquire specific skills with experts during training visits to KCL and UCL, to be able to rigorously address my research goals. Together, these goals will allow me to become more competitive to secure further funding, and I will develop three grant proposals to pursue my research on the relationship between bilingualism and complex social cognitive processes influencing the social abilities of autistic people.