It's our job to bridge the gap: Perspectives of bilingual autism providers on heritage language care.
Autistic kids do better when BCBAs speak the family’s heart language—so recruit, pay, and support bilingual staff.
01Research in Context
What this study did
van der Miesen et al. (2024) talked with bilingual autism providers across the United States. They asked how using the family’s heritage language helps or hurts therapy.
The team held group chats and one-on-one calls. Providers shared real stories about kids and parents they serve.
What they found
Providers saw clear wins when they could speak the home language. Kids stayed engaged and families followed through with home plans.
When no one spoke the heritage language, sessions felt shallow. Parents looked lost and progress stalled.
How this fits with other research
Boxum et al. (2018) counted fewer IEP goals and service hours for non-English families. van der Miesen et al. (2024) give the provider view of the same gap.
Gevarter et al. (2021) showed one Spanish tele-coach session boosted parent-child turns. The new study widens the lens to any heritage language and in-person care.
Udhnani et al. (2025) found cultural adaptation stalls without agency support. van der Miesen et al. (2024) echo that need: bilingual BCBAs want pay, training, and policy back-up to keep using heritage languages.
Why it matters
If you run a clinic, hire and keep bilingual staff. Offer language-based stipends and translated materials. During intake, ask every family what language feels safest for learning. One small switch can turn passive nods into active practice at home.
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Add a ‘preferred language’ line to your intake form and schedule bilingual staff first for those cases.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
In the United States, many people have heritage languages they speak in their homes other than English, such as Chinese or Spanish. Autistic children whose families speak different languages could benefit from support and teaching in their heritage languages. Still, caregivers have reported that it is challenging to do so. Many autism professionals make suggestions that are not based on research. To date, researchers have not examined the perspectives of the small group of bilingual professionals in the United States who provide bilingual support for autistic children. Therefore, this study explored how bilingual autism providers in the United States talked about their work, bilingualism, and the impacts their bilingual work has on autistic children and families. The bilingual providers in this study reported many positive outcomes for autistic children when they can learn and use their heritage languages and some negative outcomes when providers cannot communicate in the same language. Recommendations from this study highlight the need to recruit more bilingual providers in the field of autism.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2024 · doi:10.1177/13623613241234413