Browsing by Person "Rabagliati, Hugh"

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Measuring the impact of bilingualism on executive functioning via inhibitory control abilities in autistic children
(Springer, 2021-08-18) Montgomery, Lewis; Chondrogianni, Vicky; Fletcher-Watson, Sue; Rabagliati, Hugh; Sorace, Antonella; Davis, Rachael
One factor that may influence how executive functions develop is exposure to more than one language in childhood. This study explored the impact of bilingualism on inhibitory control in autistic (n = 38) and non-autistic children (n = 51). Bilingualism was measured on a continuum of exposure to investigate the effects of language environment on two facets of inhibitory control. Behavioural control of motor impulses was modulated positively through increased bilingual exposure, irrespective of diagnostic status, but bilingual exposure did not significantly affect inhibition involving visual attention. The results partially support the hypothesis that bilingual exposure differentially affects components of inhibitory control and provides important evidence for families that bilingualism is not detrimental to their development.
Measuring the relationship between bilingual exposure and social attentional preferences in autistic children
(MDPI, 2023-01-16) Davis, Rachael; Montgomery, Lewis; Rabagliati, Hugh; Sorace, Antonella; Fletcher-Watson, Sue
Background: Autistic children show reduced attentional preferences to social stimuli early in development, and these differences have consequences on a range of social domains. One factor that could influence development in those processes is bilingualism. Parents and practitioners frequently have unfounded concerns that bilingualism could cause delays in autistic children, yet there is little evidence to dispute this idea. While there are studies focusing on the impact of bilingualism on cognition in autistic children, no research has focused on the relationship between bilingualism and social attention. Aims: This study therefore investigated the impact of bilingual exposure on social attention in autistic (n=33) and neurotypical children (n=42) aged 6-13 years. Rather than a monolingual/bilingual comparison, participants had varying degrees of bilingual exposure, and exposure was treated as a continuous variable. Participants completed an eye-tracking task measuring visual attention to interacting versus non-interacting human figures. Results: Bilingual exposure did not affect dwell time to interacting or non-interacting figures for the neurotypical or autistic groups. However, there was a 3-way interaction between diagnosis, figure type and vocabulary scores on dwell time. Conclusions: Higher vocabulary scores in neurotypical participants was associated with significantly less dwell time to non-interacting stimuli. This is the first study to assess the effects of bilingualism on social attention; here, concerns of bilingualism are not upheld.