Why Bilingualism Helps Autistic Children Function: A Symmetry-Based Explanation

Authors

Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

1-2019

Comments

Technical Report: UTEP-CS-19-01

Published in International Mathematical Forum, 2019, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 11-16.

Abstract

One of the main problems of autistic children is that it is very difficult for them to switch to a different state, to a different activity -- and such switches are often needed. Researchers have recently shown that bilingualism helps autistic children function: namely, it is somewhat easier for bilingual children to switch to a new activity. In this paper, we provide a possible explanation for this empirical phenomenon. Namely, we show that, in general terms, autism means difficulty with breaking symmetries of a state, and we describe how this general reformulation indeed explains the above recently discovered phenomenon.