Bilingual son (we hope) has an ASD

[DonkeyDaddy]

I wonder if you can help. I'm interested in hearing if anyone out there has a child with ASD that has been raised bilingually, and how it worked out. We always planned to raise our son to speak Cantonese (Hong Kong Chinese) and English but he is likely to be diagnosed with an ASD and his speech is delayed. He is now 2 years 9 months and has used perhaps 50 words (mostly English, and through his SALT).

our dd has asd and has been raised bilingual since birth. she is now fluent in both languages and able to read and write well in both. short message as on the phone.

I think it depends on the extent of the speech delay and and any learning disability.

If a child is really struggling with receptive and/ or expressive language it would be very confusing and unfair to introduce the complication of a second language.

I know 2 children (at the more severe end of the spectrum) whose parents were strongly advised to stick to one language in the child's best interests. In one case it was very hard for the parents to accept, especially as English wasn't their own first language, and their native tongue was a huge part of their cultural identity (understandably!) but they accepted it was a necessary adjustment