Bilingualism provides many cognitive and social advantages, including enhanced complex skills such as problem solving and multitasking. In today’s interconnected world, being able to communicate in multiple languages is increasingly an asset.

However, in the case of children facing communication challenges due to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia, traditional clinical advice has often discouraged their caregivers from raising them in bilingual environments.

Carleton University Cognitive Science researcher Olessia Jouravlev’s team challenges this view by exploring whether bilingualism may actually enhance communication in people with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions.

Jouravlev explains that steering children with these conditions away from bilingualism deprives them of advantages enjoyed by their neurotypical peers. Moreover, bilingualism may very well help these children manage cognitive deficits associated with their conditions.

Researchers in Jouravlev’s Linguistic Neurodiversity Lab  work with bilingual adults with ASD and schizophrenia in partnership with the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. The team evaluates study participants through a series of language tests while tracking physiological and neural markers—including eye movements, pupil dilation, electrical brain activity and blood flow.

Though the research is ongoing, early results indicate that bilingual individuals have a better understanding of the mental and emotional states of others.

Growing up in a bilingual environment can enhance one’s ability to interpret non-verbal communication. When language proficiency lags behind a native speaker’s, bilingual individuals rely more 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 develops 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 languages. As a trilingual speaker, Jouravlev has personally experienced the advantages of being fluent in more than one language—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, the benefits also translate to non-linguistic domains. If you ask me to do things where I need to switch my attention from one task to another, 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.”

There are also important emotional benefits for children whose language at home differs from that of the broader community.

“Traditionally, the advice has been that families using two languages at home should stop doing so and stick to the language of the community” says Jouravlev.

This can create challenges for caregivers who are less fluent in the language of the community than in their first language. Their interactions with their children may have less emotional nuance or depth.

“This can deprive kids of an important emotional component of language, which they need for their growth,” explains Jouravlev.

She 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, but rather a potential benefit—a benefit we believe is likely to help individuals who are on the autism spectrum or who have schizophrenia.”

This article was adapted and published with permission from Carleton University.

Photo credit: Brenna Mackay