Dual-Language Communication and Social-Cognitive Skills in Bilingual Children with ASD

双语自闭症儿童的双语沟通和社交认知技能

• 批准号: 10591041
• 负责人: Megan Chaya Gross
• 金额: $ 15.22万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2027-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10591041
• 关键词: Affect; Age; Area; Augmentative and Alternative Communication; Behavior; Caregivers; Child; Child Development; Child Support; Clinical; Code; Cognitive; Collaborations; Communication; Communication impairment; Communities; Data; Development; Diagnosis; Environment; Evaluation; Exclusion; Exposure to; Family; Family member; Frequencies; Future; Goals; Hearing; Home; Hour; Household; Human; Intervention; Interview; K-Series Research Career Programs; Language; Language Development; Language Therapy; Learning; Linguistics; Maintenance; Measures; Mentors; Methods; Mind; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; Parents; Phase; Population; Prevention; Professional Education; Provider; Psychology; Public Health; Questionnaires; Reporting; Research; Role; Sampling; Schools; Services; Social Development; Source; Speech; Strategic Planning; Structure; Thinking; Time; Training; United States; Variant; Voice; Work; autism spectrum disorder; autistic children; bilingualism; career development; cognitive development; cognitive process; cognitive skill; community based participatory research; community based research; design; executive function; experience; family support; flexibility; improved; improved outcome; language processing; minimally verbal; natural language; peer; phrases; service providers; skills; social; teacher; theories; verbal; visual tracking

Slightly over 1 in 5 children in the United States are growing up in a household that speaks a language other than English. For these children, developing bilingual skills will allow them to communicate both with family members who have limited English skills and with English-speaking teachers and peers. However, for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is limited research about how to facilitate their bilingual development. Professionals and parents have often assumed that learning two languages would be too challenging, especially for children with minimal spoken language skills. While several studies over the past decade have demonstrated that bilingual exposure is not detrimental for language development in children with ASD, these studies have focused mostly on the acquisition of English rather than examining factors that promote development of both languages. Furthermore, bilingual studies have generally excluded children with minimal/low verbal skills. The proposed sequential mixed-methods project places a new emphasis on variability within the bilingual experiences of children with ASD and their families. It seeks to identify factors associated with children’s skills in both languages, as well as their social-cognitive skills such as perspective- taking and cognitive flexibility. The quantitative phase will include 60 Spanish-speaking families with children with ASD (ages 4-6), including children who are minimally verbal. The first aim is to characterize sources of variation in the types of bilingual language environments experienced by children with ASD (e.g., different languages from caregivers vs. therapists; different languages from different caregivers; code-switching by bilingual caregivers; changes in language choices over time). The second aim is to examine predictors of children’s dual-language communication and social-cognitive skills, including the role of quantity and contexts of Spanish exposure. In a qualitative phase conducted with a subset of 30 families, the third aim is to interpret the quantitative findings in reference to family perspectives, priorities, experiences, and challenges with language choices and support services. The long-term goal of this work is to collaborate with families and service providers to develop interventions that support bilingual families and promote the linguistic and social- cognitive development of children across the autism spectrum. This career development proposal includes an expert team of mentors from Psychology, Communication Disorders, and Public Health. The training goals focus on conducting research with minimally verbal children with ASD, mixed methods, and using community- based participatory research to develop and evaluate interventions. The research aims and training goals of this career development award reflect current priorities in the strategic plan of the NIDCD for Voice, Speech, and Language, including Improving Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention in Understudied Populations (Priority Area 3) and Improving Outcomes for Human Communication through community-based research (Priority Area 4).

在美国，在说一种语言的家庭中成长的5个儿童中有少数超过1个儿童 比英语。对于这些孩子，发展双语技能将使他们与家人交流 英语技能和讲英语的老师和同龄人的成员。但是，对于儿童 对于自闭症谱系障碍（ASD），关于如何促进双语的研究有限 发展。专业人士和父母经常假设学习两种语言也是 具有挑战性，特别是对于具有最低语言技能的儿童而言。而过去的几项研究 十年已经证明，双语暴露对患有儿童的语言发展并不有害 ASD，这些研究主要集中于获取英语，而不是研究因素 促进两种语言的发展。此外，双语研究通常排除 最少/低口头技能。拟议的顺序混合方法项目将新的重点放在 ASD儿童及其家人的双语经历中的可变性。它试图确定因素 与两种语言的儿童技能以及他们的社会认知技能（例如观点）相关 - 采取和认知灵活性。定量阶段将包括有孩子的60个讲西班牙语的家庭 ASD（4-6岁），包括最少的口头。第一个目的是表征 ASD儿童经历的双语语言环境类型的变化（例如，不同 护理人员与治疗师的语言；来自不同护理人员的不同语言；代码转换 双语护理人员；随着时间的推移，语言选择的变化）。第二个目的是检查 儿童的双语言沟通和社会认知技能，包括数量和环境的作用 西班牙曝光。在以30个家庭的子集进行的定性阶段，第三个目的是解释 有关家庭观点，优先事项，经验和挑战的定量发现 语言选择和支持服务。这项工作的长期目标是与家人合作 服务提供者开发支持双语家庭并促进语言和社会的干预措施 在自闭症谱系中儿童的认知发展。该职业发展建议包括 心理学，沟通障碍和公共卫生的导师专家团队。培训目标 专注于与使用ASD，混合方法的最低式言语儿童进行研究，并使用社区 - 基于参与研究以制定和评估干预措施。该研究的目的和培训目标 该职业发展奖反映了NIDCD战略计划的当前优先事项，语音，语音， 和语言，包括改善研究不足的人群的诊断，治疗和预防 （优先区域3）并通过基于社区的研究改善人类交流的结果 （优先区域4）。