Semantic Fluency in Monolingual and Bilingual Children with ASD, ADHD, or Typical Development: Assessing the Role of Language and Executive Functioning Skills

Background: Little is known about how children with neurodevelopmental disorders learn and use two or more languages (Valicenti-McDermott et al., 2012). Although some advantages have been reported in executive functioning among typically developing bilingual children (Barac & Bialystok, 2012), it is unclear whether these findings will be similar among bilingual children with ASD or ADHD, considering that language can be an area of significant difficulty for these children (Kuijper et al., 2017). An important aspect of language development is the efficient and accurate retrieval of words, a concept often termed semantic or verbal fluency. To date, only one study has examined semantic fluency in bilingual children with ASD, finding that bilingual experience was associated with greater fluency when compared to monolingual experience among children with ASD (Gonzalez-Barrero & Nadig, 2016). However, it is unclear whether semantic fluency varies as a function of language experience (monolingual, bilingual) or diagnosis (ASD, ADHD, no diagnosis).

Objectives: The objective of the current study is to examine semantic fluency among children with ASD, ADHD or typically development and examine the contributions of language experience, language skills, and executive functioning skills.

Methods: Children between 6 and 14 years of age who communicated verbally and had consistent monolingual (English) or bilingual (English/Spanish) experience were recruited to participate. Children could have a diagnosis of ASD, ADHD, or no diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder. Parents completed a language background questionnaire, documenting demographic characteristics, children’s early language milestones, and language exposure. Parents also completed measures of clinical symptomatology through the Social Communication Questionnaire and the Conners-3. Children were assessed on nonverbal reasoning (Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices), overall language skills (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals – 4th version, CELF-4), and executive functioning skills (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function).

Semantic fluency was assessed through the Word Association subtest of the CELF-4. This task requires participants to state as many items within 60 seconds for three semantic categories (animals, food, professions/clothing). Semantic fluency will be evaluated on total correct responses, number of switches between clusters, and the average cluster size. Bilingual children completed the CELF-4 and the Word Association subtest in English and Spanish.

Results: Data collection is ongoing, with an anticipated overall sample of 120 children. Data collected thus far includes a sample of 19 children with ASD (Monolingual n = 9; Bilingual n = 10). Preliminary analyses found no differences between monolingual and bilingual children with ASD on early language milestones, including age of 1^st word (p = .878), short phrases (p = .243), and sentences (p = .091). Complete analyses will include comparisons across language (monolingual, bilingual) and diagnostic (ASD, ADHD, no diagnosis) groups on semantic fluency accuracy and retrieval strategies, including the role of language and executive functioning skills.

Conclusions: Overall, the results of this study will provide insight into the underlying processes of semantic fluency among children with neurodevelopmental disorders who have bilingual language experience. These results can inform educational and therapeutic strategies used in clinical and community settings to support children with diverse language experiences.