Bilingualism and ASD

[sc13]

Hello there. My DS (3) is bilingual (English and Italian) and has just been dx with ASD. The SALT who assessed him as part of the dx did not comment much on the bilingual issue, but took on board the fact that his Italian appears more developed than his English (twice as many verbs, twice as many adjectives, longer sentences), despite DS attending nursery f/t. We're getting SALT in English, but I haven't been able to locate a therapist who can both work in Italian and has experience of ASD. Should I just get an Italian SALT and get her to do the same things the English one does? Should I try to do it myself? Any mums here with advice?
Thanks!

Hi SC13 - think we've crossed paths on the SN board .
Don't have time to post full details now but my DD is bilingual and has sim. language impairment to ASD so while I can't advise I can certainly tell you what our exp. has been. Will come back tomorrow and will also dig out some useful bilingual / ASD resources that I've found.
Brio.

Thanks Brio!!!

Sorry SC13, back now.
Firstly, I think our circs are slightly differnt. DD is EMT (both parents English-speaking) but she is at school in France, so all of her second language is outside the home. Am I right in guessing that your DS speaks Italian with you and English with his Dad?
Now, when we first realised DD had a language disorder, we had taken her ourselves to see an English SALT, so to begin with she had just English. I was advised by her medical team that to begin with she was best off having speech therapy in her mother tongue. Obviously, with both parents English, her "mother tongue" is clearly English. I was later fortunate enough to discover a bilingual speech therapist who assessed DD and has agreed to take her on from September in French (I could have just gone to a French SALT but I like the idea of someone whose bilingual because sometimes monolingual SALTs have some funny ideas about bilingualism).
The English SALT who has been working with DD has experience of ASD and developmental delay, and I would say that this has been really important to DD because she knew about getting her to listen, working on her attention span and stuff, knew how to work with her behaviour.
If you're being offered SALT in English, take it. Frankly, take anything that's offered to you, particularly if she's got exp. of ASD. If she's good, she'll give you ideas about ways to work with your DS and you can do that in English or Italian, depending on what suits you best. There are also lots of resources about working with lang. delayed kids which I can probably dig out for you given time. If you also want to consult someone for the Italian, I can't see that will do any harm. You could also ask your SALT straight out for advice.
Like I say, our situation is slightly different, and I have had moments of wondering if we are mad even to try it, but you have to have faith that it IS possible to be delayed but bilingual!
If you email me brioche90 @ gmail dot com I will send you some links about bilingualism and ASD that I have dug out. There's also a speech and language email group set up by one of the other mums on the SN board and you might like to join that - sort of mutual support and exchange of ideas. There's another person on there whose DC is bilingual.