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santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

Does anyone have any links/information to recommend about second language acquisition and autism? Any personal experience with students?

It's not for a student, it's for one of my own children. I'm debating whether or not to pack and go home because my son isn't learning English very well, let alone the native language here.

vallecano · Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:45 am Post subject:

Hi Santi,
I don´t know if you'll have read the articles below.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00071.x/pdf
http://www.lingref.com/isb/4/096ISB4.PDF

We have a child with SEN and we've continued bringing her up bilingual despite 'professional' advice that this could be damaging. My partner and I have different L1s and if we'd gone down a monolingual route, it would have meant reducing the ability of our daughter to communicate with one side of her family.

I don't know your exact circumstances but if you feel you are getting good support with your son's autism where you are, I wouldn't do anything drastic. As I'm sure you know language delay is not unusual for children on the Autism Spectrum.

corniche · Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Posts: 38

Ste Justine has a lot of experience with bilingual children with autism and disabilities. Keep both languages going. It would be harder to stop all of a sudden and then try to teach a new language later. I think you have a unique opportunity in Montreal, with therapy available in both languages, as well as therapy in French while you speak to your child in English at home.

Also more than one language helps the brain, creating new "pathways." But the US research has its usual slant on monolingualism, and you are susceptible to that in Canada. So the more you research on the internet in English, the more you will see people telling you to go home.

I'm working on an ESL EFL programme for dyslexic children who often start off language-delayed. It's not that it's harder, it's just different.

corniche · Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Posts: 38

That said, Québec is going mad about language laws, so...it might not just be a simple case of exposing your child to more than one language, but a whole lot of silliness, like you are forbidden from speaking English or some such.

It's unfortunate because bilingualism really helps, even though it is initially frustrating, but politics on all the nearby borders makes normal language apprehension almost impossible.

LongShiKong · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 1082 Location: China

Have you heard How Kristine Barnett nurtured her autistic son’s spark of genius? Her book or one of the interviews she and her son did on TVO or CBC radio might help you. There are interesting correlations between empathy in infants, intellectual dev't, and language acquisition.

Concepcion780 · Joined: 10 Aug 2011 Posts: 32 Location: United States

I worked with an autistic girl who spoke English as a third language (in the US) and she had communication difficulties but seemed to be okay with language learning.

The US has a lot of services available to autistic kids, early intervention, home and school based behavioral support, special ed, etc. I'm not sure where you are, but comparing the level of support available would probably be an important factor in this decision. And it sounds like a difficult decision to make, I wish you the best as you try to sort it out.

LongShiKong · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 1082 Location: China

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your wonderful responses. Sorry for my late reply, it's been an exhausting few weeks of psychologist meetings and other specialists. This is very difficult to do as I am not completely proficient in the language here either, but I'm fumbling through.

The psychologist and speech-therapist have said that he has severe language and communication problems. They are more concerned that he is not learning L1, let alone L2. They said it's like there is a roadblock between what he thinks and what he says, it gets all jumbled up and he misinterprets the world.

After a long discussion, I have decided that I will be leaving this career and we will be moving. Yes, we live in Quebec. The funding here is $1300 a year for his services - it's $60,000 per year in Alberta. It's a no brainer. My husband has managed to snag a transfer to a smaller town with a nearly zero ESL population and a good 2 hours from any major city, so there's just no work there for me in this field.

I would love to continue to teach English in some capacity, either online or focus on adult (L1) literacy, but ESL just doesn't exist in small town Alberta. It's a hard decision but I finished my TESL degree two years before he was even born, and this was never predicted. He is a fairly severe case and has to come first.

Darn life always getting in the way of the TEFL lifestyle Wink

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

Correct, it is a spectrum disorder, ranging from "quirky" to severely disabled. My son is more along the lines of needing therapy for his entire lifetime in order to function in society, and possibly be on disability for life. I don't know, we'll see.

LongShiKong · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 1082 Location: China

Santi, where in Alberta are you heading? ELT does offer transferable skills that might come in handy... running a daycare, a Kumon, or tutoring service. Best of luck to you!!!

I highly recommend you do your own research on your own on autism as that mother I quoted above did. Of course, there's no way to really tell but I suspect, had she gone along with what she was told about her son, accepting the kind of treatment regime, the genius that his her son might still be locked in his brain, unable to express himself.