Imagine being told the best way to help your autistic child is to stop speaking the language that connects you to your family, your history, and your community. That's the reality for many multilingual families, even though research clearly shows that speaking two or more languages does not slow down an autistic child's language development. This advice, based on old and harmful myths, creates a painful gap between families and the care they receive. It severs the natural flow of culture between generations and makes it harder for parents and children to communicate deeply. The problem is rooted in outdated ideas that wrongly linked bilingualism with cognitive problems, and these ideas have become embedded in autism services. These practices are shaped by racism and ableism—the belief that speaking only English and behaving in 'neurotypical' ways is the superior standard. Because research on autism interventions has systematically excluded non-English speakers, the evidence base itself reinforces this monolingual approach. The authors argue this is a refusal to change systems that treat English as the default. True, supportive autism care must be culturally sustaining. It should promote 'additive bilingual' environments where a child's heritage language is seen as a strength, not a problem. Language is how children access family stories, spiritual practices, and a true sense of belonging. Shifting to this model requires humility from clinicians and research focused on how to best honor and protect heritage language use at home.
Why are autistic children from multilingual families still told to speak only English at home?
Plain Language Summary
What this means for you:
Autism care must stop telling multilingual families to speak only English and start supporting heritage languages as vital to family connection and identity. What this means for you:
Autism care must stop telling multilingual families to speak only English and start supporting heritage languages as vital to family connection and identity. View Original Abstract ↓
Despite robust evidence that bilingualism does not hinder language development in autistic children, service providers continue advising multilingual families to adopt English as their home language. This research-to-practice gap severs intergenerational cultural transmission and compromises parent-child communication. This perspective paper examines how historical misconceptions linking bilingualism with cognitive deficits became embedded in autism intervention practices. We analyze how intersecting ideologies of ableism and racism co-construct deficit-lens perspectives, and how policies rooted in White Mainstream English hegemony, organizational barriers, and assimilationist paradigms undermine multilingual families’ linguistic practices. Research shows autistic children successfully acquire multiple languages, and heritage language maintenance is essential for ethnic identity, family relationships, and well-being. Yet the systematic exclusion of non-English speakers from intervention research has created an evidence base that reinforces monolingual practices. This disconnect represents a fundamental refusal to dismantle structures positioning English monolingualism as the default standard. Culturally sustaining autism interventions must promote additive bilingual environments, recognizing language as the medium through which children access family histories, spiritual practices, and belonging. Adopting a neuroaffirming framework centering well-being over compliance requires cultural humility and self-reflection about how our experiences shape clinical work. We call for research investigating best practices that honors, protects, and sustains heritage language environments—evidence urgently needed to reshape outdated policies restricting home language instruction.