Cover not available
Part of
Experimental Arabic Linguistics
Edited by Dimitrios Ntelitheos and Tommi Tsz-Cheung Leung
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 10] 2021
► pp. 209–246

An exploratory longitudinal study of vocabulary development in bilingually exposed children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United Arab Emirates

ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©, UAE
ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©, UAE
ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©, UAE
ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©, UAE
This is a longitudinal study of the vocabulary development of 29 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the UAE, who are aged 44 to 77 months and enrolled in a bilingual intensive intervention program. These children were assessed at entry, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 30 months using receptive and expressive vocabulary tests in Arabic and English. MANOVA results and follow-up tests showed significant increases in vocabulary skills across times and in both languages. Pearson correlation coefficients showed strong positive correlations between the four vocabulary tests. Results confirmed findings of no detrimental effects of bilingual intervention reported in other languages. Moreover, results showed that speaking abilities at the start of the program did not correlate with their expressive vocabulary at the end of the study. We discuss limitations of this study and some considerations when conducting similar research in the future.
Keywords: bilingualism, ASD (autism spectrum disorders), vocabulary
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Autism spectrum disorder
    • 1.2Autism spectrum disorder and bilingualism
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Participants
      • 2.1.1Speaking ability criteria and participants’ bilingual exposure
    • 2.2Procedures
      • 2.2.1Measures
      • 2.2.2About the intervention program
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Descriptive statistics
    • 3.2Correlations between the four vocabulary tests
    • 3.3Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
    • 3.4Variability in children with autism: Results based on speaking abilities
      • 3.4.1The non-speaking group
      • 3.4.2Minimally speaking children
      • 3.4.3Speaking children
  • 4.Discussion and analysis
  • 5.Limitations and future directions
  • Note
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 26 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.10.08sha
References (49)
References
Al-Abbady, K., Hessian, H. M., & Alaam, M. W. (2017). Prevalence, trend, determinants and prediction of autism spectrum disorders among Dubai population, diagnostic approach and management contexts. Pediatric Health Research, 2, 2. 10.21762574-2817.100016. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Al-Issa, A., & Dahan, L. (2011). Global English and endangered Arabic in the United Arab Emirates. In A. Al-Issa & L. Dahan (Eds) Global English and Arabic: Issues of language (pp. 1–22). Bern Switzerland: Peter Lang Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA). (2014). Bilingual service delivery. Retrieved from [URL]
Baio, J., Wiggins, L., Christensen, D. L., et al. (2018). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 Years – Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014. MMWR Surveill Summ, 67, 1–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bedore, L. M., Peña, E. D., Griffin, Z. M., & Hixon, J. G. (2016). Effects of age of English exposure, current input/output, and grade on bilingual language performance. Journal of Child Language, 43, 687–706. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis. (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson.Google Scholar
COST Action IS0804 (2011). Questionnaire for parents of biligual children (PABIQ). [URL]
De Houwer, A. (2009). An Introduction to bilingual development. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drysdale, H., van der Meer, L., & Kagohara, D. (2015). Children with autism spectrum disorders from bilingual families: a systematic review. Review of Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2, 22–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dubai Statistics Center. (2018). Number of population estimated by nationality. Retrieved from [URL]
Ebert, K., Kohnert, K., Pham, G., Disher, J., & Payesteh, B. (2014). Three treatments for bilingual children with primary language impairment: Examining cross-linguistic and cross-domain effects. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57, 172–186. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
El-Amouri, S., & O’Neill, S. (2011). Supporting cross-cultural communication and culturally competent care in the linguistically and culturally diverse hospital settings of UAE. Contemporary Nurse, 39, 240–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J. P., et al. (1993). MacArthur communicative development inventories: User’s guide and technical manual. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Fredman, M. (2011). Recommendations for working with bilingual children-Prepared by the Multilingual Affairs Committee of IALP. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 58, 458–464.Google Scholar
Genesee, F. (2006). Bilingual first language acquisition in perspective. In P. D. McCardle & E. Hoff (Eds.). Childhood bilingualism: Research on infancy through school age (pp. 45–67). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gonzalez-Barrero, A. M., & Nadig, A. (2018). Bilingual children with autism spectrum disorders: the impact of amount of language exposure on vocabulary and morphological skills at school age. Autism Research, 11, 1667–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, François. (1992). Another view of bilingualism. In R. J. Harris (Ed.) Advances in psychology, cognitive processing in bilinguals (pp. 51–62). Oxford: North-Holland. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haman, E., Wodniecka, Z., Marecka, M., Szewczyk, J., Białecka-Pikul, M., Otwinowska, A., Mieszkowska, K., Łuniewska, M., Kołak, J., Miękisz, A., Kacprzak, A., Banasik, N., Foryś-Nogala, M. (2017). How does L1 and L2 exposure impact L1 performance in bilingual children? Evidence from Polish-English migrants to the United Kingdom. Frontiers Psychology, 4, 1444. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hambly, C., & Fombonne, E. (2012). The impact of bilingual environments on language development in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 1342–1352. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014). Factors influencing bilingual expressive vocabulary size in children with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 8, 1079–1089. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopkyns, S. (2017). A conflict of desires: Global English and its effects on cultural identity in the United Arab Emirates. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Leicester, UK.Google Scholar
Kay-Raining Bird, E., Lamond, E., & Holden, J. (2012). Survey of bilingualism in autism spectrum disorders. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 47, 52–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kay-Raining Bird, E., Genesee, F., & Verhoeven, L. (2016). Bilingualism in children with developmental disorders: A narrative review. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 63, 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Khater, M. (2018). Early phonological skills as a predictor for receptive and expressive vocabulary size in Gulf Arabic speaking children. Ph.D. dissertation. City, University of London, UK.Google Scholar
Kim, S. H., Paul, R., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Lord, C. (2014). Language and communication in autism. In F. R. Volkmar, R. Paul, S. Rogers, and K. A. Pelphrey (Eds), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. (4th Ed.). New Jersey: Wiley Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kohnert, K., Yim, D., Nett, K., Kan, P. F., & Duran, L. (2005). Intervention with linguistically diverse preschool children: A focus on developing home language(s). Language, Speech, And Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 251–263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2005). To be or not to be bilingual: autistic children from Multilingual Families. In J. Cohen, K. T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, & J. MacSwan (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on Bilingualism (pp. 1225–1234). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
Lord, C., Risi, S., & Pickles, A. (2004). Trajectory of language development in autistic spectrum disorders. In M. L. Rice & S. F. Warren (Eds.), Developmental language disorders: From phenotypes to etiologies (pp. 7–29). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Lund, E. M., Kohlmeier, T. L., & Durán, L. K. (2017). Comparative language development in bilingual and monolingual children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review. Journal of Early Intervention, 39, 106–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, N., & Brownell, R. (2010). The receptive one word picture vocabulary test, 4th ed. Novato, California: ATP Assessment.Google Scholar
Ohashi, J. K., Mirenda, P., Marinova-Todd, S., Hambly, C., Fombonne, E., Szatmari, P., Bryson, S., Roberts, W., Smith, I., Vaillancourt, T., Volden, J., Waddell, C., Zwaigenbaum, L., Georgiades, S., Duku, E., & Thompson, A. (2012). Comparing early language development in monolingual- and bilingual- exposed young children with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6(2), 890–897. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J., Emmerzael, K., & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2010). Assessment of English language learners: Using parent report on first language development. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 474–497. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pearson, B. Z., Fernandez, S. C., & Oller, R. E. (1993). Lexical development in bilingual infants and toddlers: Comparison to monolingual norms. Language Learning, 43, 93–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Petersen, J. M., Marinova-Todd, S. H., & Mirenda, P. (2012). Brief report: An exploratory study of lexical skills in bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 1499–1503. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raddawi, R., & Meslem, D. (2015). Loss of Arabic in the UAE: Is bilingual education the solution? International Journal of Bilingual & Multilingual Teachers of English, 3, 85–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reetzke, R., Zou, X., & Sheng, L. (2015). Communicative development in bilingually exposed Chinese children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, 813–825. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shaalan, S. (2010). Investigating grammatical complexity in Gulf-Arabic speaking children with specific language impairment. Ph.D. dissertation. University College London, London, UK.Google Scholar
(2017). Reliability and validity of four Arabic language tests: a comparison of performance of Qatari school-aged children with and without language impairment. Arab Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2, 20–48.Google Scholar
Shaalan, S., Gould, D. D., & Egan, K., & Olsen, P. (2016). Bilingual intervention using ABA methods in the United Arab Emirates: Preliminary findings. Paper presented at the Bi-Annual Convention of the European Association for Behaviour Analysis. Enna, Sicily, Italy.
Smart, J. (1990). Pidginization in gulf Arabic: A first report. Anthropological Linguistics, 32, 83–119.Google Scholar
Sparrow, S., Cicchetti, D., & Balla, D. (2005). Vineland adaptive behaviour scales. (2nd ed.). Minneapolis, MN: Pearson Assessment.Google Scholar
Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi. (2017). Statistical year book population 2017. Retrieved from [URL]
Thordardottir, E. (2010). Towards evidence-based practice in language intervention for bilingual children. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 523–537. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Valicenti-McDermott, M., Tarshis, N., Schouls, M., Galdston, M., Hottinger, K., & Seijo, R. (2013). Language differences between monolingual English and bilingual English-Spanish young children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Neurology, 28, 945–948. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
World Bank. (2019). United Arab Emirates Data. [URL]. Accessed 15 September 2019.
Yang, M., Cooc, N., & Sheng, L. (2017). An investigation of cross-linguistic transfer between Chinese and English: a meta-analysis. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2, 15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Abd El-Raziq, Muna, Natalia Meir & Elinor Saiegh-Haddad
2024. Morphosyntactic skills in Arabic-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from error patterns in the sentence repetition task. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments 9 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.