language development or asperger

[parisa Daftarifard]

To whom it may concern,
Greetings,

I am Phd Student in TEFL in Iran and recently I came across a confusing case
concerning bilingualism and autism or Asperger Syndrom. I wonder if you have
ever noticed this feature before.

I came across Three bilinguals who have learned English from TV mostly when
they were young (less than 6 months to one and half years old). The programs
they watched were baby TV channel, BBC Prime and Smile of child. Their
mother tongue is Farsi in which they were interacted and spoken to. They had
less interaction through English (almost no). At the age of three years old,
they showed some features that might be misdiagnosed with Asperger syndrome.
The features they show are

1.  language resistance in the way that if I call them they may pay
attention or may not (from 20 times, they may look back only 3 times) and if
I talk with them or converse with them they would not answer my questions
(most of the times saying 8 in 10) but say their own words.

2.  They dont enter play with others although they have symbolic play on
their own in the way that they repeat or restate those statements they heard
before or were told before with their toys like cars dolls and even
helicopter!

3.  They have repetitive verbal behavior (NOT body behavior, they never
shake their hand or do something repeatedly) that is they repeat the words
they know or sentences they know repeatedly not the whole day but for a
considerable time.

4.  They have started their language in one word and soonly in two words in
Farsi (first language) when they were 2 and half years old although when
they were younger they said some words too like (Aabba means Water).   Now
they are three years old, one of them speak in farsi fluently and one boy
says three word sentences like (berim khone papa means we go gradpa's home).


5.  the younger boy (three years old and three months) misuse the pronouns
first person and second person in farsi. He is using three word sentences
and sometimes two word sentences.

"about their English state, they are not allowed to listen to or be in
contact with English anymore so that their first language develops
completely although the younger boy pays a lot of attention when he hears
English from TV or a person and in one case he was attending an English
class in his kindergarten and there he learned about the statement (show me
your nose), at home he talked with himself that "show me your helicopter,
/gatar/ = train"

The reasons I and some specialists doubt they are aspergers or autistic are

6.  They have eye contact
7.  They use language indexically both to show the object they want and to
share their interest with their parents or teachers.
8. They play symbolically and repeat what they have heard in society in
their play
9.  They use imagination when they play for example, they use car seat as a
horse or a belt as a snake.
10. Recently the younger boy I have seen that tell one scene of a short
story (just the one his mother told him) from the picture.


I wonder if you have ever noticed these features in bilinguals.
Unfortunately, psychologists here are not linguists or SLA specialist and
labeled these children as being Asperger.


I appreciate your help and notice in advance.
Best,
Parisa

-- 
Parisa Daftarifard
Phd Student of TEFL
Islamic Azad University of Science and Research

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