Multilingual Environment and Social Communication in Autism

Abstract

Our study explores the influence of parents’ linguistic background on the social communication skills of minimally speaking children on the autism spectrum from India and the US. We found that having multilingual parents was generally positively associated with social communication skills in minimally speaking children on the autism spectrum. However, this relationship varied depending on the parents’ cultural orientation and whether the family was residing in a broadly multilingual society. These findings advocate for a perspective shift among practitioners and families to view linguistic diversity as a developmental asset rather than a hindrance..

Roles and Responsibilities 

As the first author, I led all aspects of data dissemination in collaboration with researchers from the University of Massachusetts, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Department of Education. My responsibilities included:

• Developing research questions and hypotheses specific to multilingualism and social communication

• Identifying and implementing an appropriate data analysis plan, including cross-linguistic comparisons

• Conceptualizing the publication’s framework to effectively communicate findings

• Conducting literature reviews to contextualize results within multilingual and developmental disability research

• Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative findings to ensure a comprehensive interpretation

• Leading a team of early-career and student researchers, providing mentorship and guidance throughout the writing process

• Drafting and refining the manuscript to ensure clarity and coherence

• Collaborating with co-authors to incorporate feedback and revise the manuscript

• Preparing figures, tables, and supplementary materials to illustrate key findings

• Overseeing the journal submission and revision process, including addressing reviewer comments

• Presenting and disseminating findings through academic conferences and publications

Publications

Suswaram, S., Gross, M., Huang, S., & Jenkins, K. (2025). Multilingualism as a developmental asset in minimally speaking children with autism: A cross-national study of India and the US. Bilingual Research Journal, 1–20. https://doi-org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.1080/15235882.2025.2594771 

Presentations

Suswaram, S., Gross, M., Jenkins, K., & Jimenez., A. (March, 2023). Multilingual Environments and Social Communication Development in Minimally Verbal Autistic Children. Meeting on Language in Autism (MoLA)