Bilingual Children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from Oral Narratives and Non-verbal Executive Function Tasks Eleni Baldimtsi, Eleni Peristeri, Ianthi Maria Tsimpli, and Ageliki Nicolopoulou 1. Introduction Bilingualism is an exponentially increasing condition in today’s world population due to mass immigration and globalization. Today, more than half of the world’s children are raised bilingual (cf. Marian & Shook, 2012). Previous research has shown that individuals raised in bilingual environments enjoy linguistic and cognitive advantages. More specifically, acquiring a second language has been reported to confer advantages on children’s verbal and non- verbal cognitive abilities. Regarding verbal abilities, bilingual children often outperform monolinguals in areas like perspective-taking, metalinguistic awareness, i.e. the ability to reflect upon and manipulate the structural features of language, and narrative production (Altman, Armon-Lotem, Fichman, & Walters, 2016; Garcia-Frazier, 2013; Greenberg, Bellana, & Bialystok, 2013; Tsimpli, Peristeri, Andreou, 2016; Tunmer & Herriman, 1984). Moreover many studies yield compelling evidence for a bilingual advantage on non-verbal executive control. Tasks assessing inhibition, monitoring, set-shifting and working memory report that bilinguals perform better that monolinguals (Bialystok & Senman, 2004; Hilchey & Klein, 2011; Morales, Calvo, & Bialystok, 2013; Okanda, Moriguchi, & Itakura, 2010). Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit a unique language phenotype and a unique cognitive profile. In verbal abilities, autism research indicates impairments in areas like pragmatics, semantics, morphosyntax and language comprehension (Boucher, 2012; Kelley, 2011). In contrast, evidence on non- verbal abilities and in particular executive functions (EFs), show that individuals with ASD encounter difficulties in areas like inhibition, flexibility, planning and short-term memory (see Eigsti, 2011 for a review). * Eleni Baldimtsi, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, empaldim@enl.auth.gr Eleni Peristeri, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, eperiste@enl.auth.gr Ianthi Maria Tsimpli, University of Cambridge, imt20@cam.ac.uk Ageliki Nicolopoulou, Lehigh University, agn3@lehigh.edu Author contact info: Eleni Baldimtsi, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Tel.: +30 6972252969. E-mail address: empaldim@enl.auth.gr © 2016 Eleni Baldimtsi, Eleni Peristeri, Ianthi Maria Tsimpli, and Ageliki Nicolopoulou. Proceedings of the 40th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, ed. Jennifer Scott and Deb Waughtal, 18-31. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.