How do parents scaffold their autistic children's bilingual language interactions in everyday settings?

This study examines how multilingual caregivers use their linguistic resources to support their autistic children's language development, challenging historical narratives recommending therapists use only one language, English. Using a critical language socialization framework in which multilingualism is considered a practice that transcends linguistic competence, we analyzed 108 videos from five Spanish-dominant, Mexican heritage families. Findings showed that (1) families flexibly used their linguistic resources in daily interactions; (2) home activity settings predicted language use in distinct ways, transportation activities provided fewer constraints for interlocutors to use decontextualized language, language for abstract reasoning and prediction; and (3) variability in maternal scaffolding strategies influenced children's decontextualized language.