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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©
ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©
ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©
ORCID logo | Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Special Education - Operated by The New England Center for Children©

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
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