# Exploratory investigation of bilingualism, executive function, and brain organization in children with autism

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2023 · $431,750

## Abstract

Project Summary
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with marked heterogeneity with respect to the development of
executive function (EF) abilities. In the United States, 12 million children primarily speak a language other than
English in the home, suggesting that 1 in 4 children with ASD are being raised in a bilingual environment.
Individuals who speak two languages fluently sometimes perform better on tasks of EF than monolingual
individuals. Despite the potential advantages that bilingualism may confer, clinical practitioners commonly
advise against providing a bilingual environment for children with developmental disabilities. The rationale for
this recommendation is that concentrating on one language should better support a child’s language
development. Yet, a growing body of work suggests there are no negative effects of being raised in a bilingual
environment for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Preliminary evidence even suggests possible
associations between bilingualism and enhanced EF in some children with ASD. Still, there is little research
specific to bilingualism in children with ASD, leaving clinicians struggling to develop informed
recommendations for families of children with the disorder. Currently, there is no research characterizing the
relationship between bilingualism, EF abilities, and brain network organization in children with ASD. This
project will investigate these links for the first time. This exploratory project will examine the neural basis of EF
in 50 monolingual and 50 bilingual children with ASD between the ages of 8-12 years with two aims: 1) to
characterize associations between bilingualism and EF abilities in children with ASD using an informant-report
indicator of EF and performance-based laboratory tasks, and 2) to characterize associations between
bilingualism and brain functional organization underlying EF abilities in children with ASD using both task-
based fMRI and resting-state functional connectivity dynamics. The project will be conducted in Los Angeles,
where nearly 60% of the population is bilingual. This research addresses the strategic plan from the
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee that aspires to understand alterations in brain function in ASD to
better enable the development of targeted interventions and societal accommodations that improve quality of
life for individuals on the spectrum.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10742472
- **Project number:** 1R21HD111805-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Lucina Qazi Uddin
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $431,750
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-08-15 → 2025-08-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10742472

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10742472, Exploratory investigation of bilingualism, executive function, and brain organization in children with autism (1R21HD111805-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10742472. Licensed CC0.

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