Bilingualism offers many cognitive and social advantages, including enhanced complex mental skills such as problem solving and improved multitasking. In today’s interconnected world, being able to communicate in multiple languages is increasingly valuable.
But for those who experience communication challenges due to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia, traditional clinical advice has often discouraged caregivers from raising their children in bilingual environments.
Carleton University Cognitive Science researcher Olessia Jouravlev’s team is challenging this conventional thinking by exploring whether bilingualism may actually enhance communication among people with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions.
When children with these conditions are steered away from a bilingual environment, Jouravlev explains, they may be missing out on the same advantages of bilingualism that are lauded for their neurotypical counterparts. In fact, bilingualism could offer benefits that help manage cognitive deficits associated with these conditions.
Strengthening the Spectrum of Communication Skills
Researchers in Jouravlev’s Linguistic Neurodiversity Lab are working with bilingual adults with ASD and schizophrenia in partnership with The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. The team is evaluating study participants through a series of language tests while also tracking physiological and neural markers, including eye movements, pupil dilation, brain’s electrical activity and blood flow.
While the research is ongoing, early results indicate that bilingual individuals have improved understanding of the mental and emotional states of others.
Growing up in a bilingual environment can benefit one’s ability to interpret non-verbal communication. When there is a gap in language proficiency with a native speaker, bilingual individuals often rely more heavily on eye contact, facial expressions and other non-verbal cues to fully understand what is being communicated.
“It requires eye contact and close observation,” Jouravlev says.
“This trains dynamic social skills and requires people to adjust their communication in the moment.”
Using multiple languages also teaches children to observe social cues when switching between different language contexts.
Language Management and Mental Multitasking
As someone who speaks three languages, Jouravlev has personal experience with the advantages of bilingualism —including the benefits for multitasking.
“When we know multiple languages, those languages are active in the mind at all times,” Jouravlev explains.
“Because managing multiple languages constantly trains the brain, it also translates to non-linguistic domains. If you ask me to do things where I need to switch my attention, it will be easier than it would be for someone who knows just one language.”
This enhanced cognitive control may also provide benefits for symptom management.
“There have been a number of case studies in patients with schizophrenia where they would have symptoms, such as hallucinations, only when immersed in their native language,” says Jouravlev.
“When they are using their second language, they are trying so hard to comprehend what is being communicated that they have fewer mental resources for internally generated hallucinations.”
Emotional Connection through Language
There are also important emotional benefits for children of families whose language at home differs from that of the broader community.
“Traditionally, the advice has been that if you use two languages in your household, families should stop this and stick to the language of the community,” says Jouravlev.
This can create challenges for caregivers who cannot express themselves as fully in the community language as they can in their first language. As a result, their interactions with their children may include less emotional nuance or depth.
“This can deprive kids of an important emotional component of language, which they need for their growth,” she says.
Jouravlev hopes the full results of this research will give families and clinicians clearer, evidence-based guidance.
“My hope is that caregivers and clinicians will realize that knowledge of multiple languages is not a limitation for communication, it’s a potential benefit —one which we believe is likely to help individuals who are on the autism spectrum or individuals who have schizophrenia.”