Response to Commentaries on bilingual language development in autism.

3.2 Effects of social interaction deficits on the role bilingual experience variables play Deficits in social interaction, possibly enhanced statistical learning/systemizing, and/or their interaction might mean that different variables inherent to bilingual experience could play a very different role in Bi-ASD language development compared to other contexts. In this response, we first comment on some issues raised by the authors regarding methodology, and then focus on two particular points we find important: heterogeneity (in bilingualism and ASD) and language acquisition with limited social interaction (and the implications for Bi-ASD language development). Methodological issues regarding (bilingual) language development in autism Several commentaries concurred with us that investigating Bi-ASD language development should include underrepresented individuals (e.g., minimally-verbal [MV] children), as well as relevant comparative groups, and involve all linguistic domains, different properties within each domain, and varying degrees of complexity for targeted structures. In the keynote article ([20]), we took a critical look at the conclusion, which seems to emerge from the literature, that bilingualism does not have negative effects on language development in autistic children. [Extracted from the article]