Why bilingualism helps autistic children function: a symmetry-based explanation

Abstract

One of the main problems of autistic children is that it is very difficult for them to switch to a different state, to a different activity – and such switches are often needed. Researchers have recently shown that bilingualism helps autistic children function: namely, it is somewhat easier for bilingual children to switch to a new activity. In this paper, we provide a possible explanation for this empirical phenomenon. Namely, we show that, in general terms, autism means difficulty with breaking symmetries of a state, and we describe how this general reformulation indeed explains the above recently discovered phenomenon. 1 Formulation of the Problem What is autism: a brief reminder. Autism is defined as a “developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior”; see, e.g., [1, 7]. Researchers are trying to help. At present, there is no way to completely cure this disorder. However, there are many techniques that help some patients function better – i.e., make it easier for them to switch to a new activity and/or easier to disrupt the repetitive behavior. Can bilingualism help? There is plenty of evidence that, in general, bilingualism – i.e., knowing two languages – helps in problem solving; see, e.g., [2, 3]. Because of this general fact, researchers studying autism decided to check whether a similar improvement can be observed in autistic children. It helps but why? The results of this research [5] show that bilingualism indeed statistically significantly helps bilingual children switch to a new activity: on average, bilingual autistic children performed better on such switching tasks than monolingual ones. These results confirmed anecdotal evidence listed in [6].