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Bilingual exposure and theory of mind in children’s narrative coherence

Evidence from autistic and neurotypical speakers

ORCiD logo with link | University of Edinburgh
ORCiD logo with link | University of Fribourg
ORCiD logo with link | University of Edinburgh
ORCiD logo with link | University of Fribourg
ORCiD logo with link | University of Fribourg
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Edinburgh.

Published online: 25 June 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.25106.che
Abstract
This mixed-methods study investigates how bilingual exposure and Theory of Mind (ToM) in autistic and neurotypical children relate to two dimensions of narrative coherence (i.e., referential and causal coherence). Study 1 analysed oral narratives from 34 children (7 autistic, 27 neurotypical) using regression modelling. Results indicated that diagnostic group predicted referential coherence, with autistic children scoring lower after controlling for age and vocabulary. Both first- and second-order ToM were associated with referential coherence in autistic children but not neurotypical peers. No group difference emerged for causal coherence, which was predicted by age, vocabulary, and heritage language exposure. An exploratory follow-up of eight children approximately one year later found that all four children who improved in causal coherence were bilingual, a pattern descriptively consistent with the results of Study 1. These findings highlight the value of examining referential and causal coherence as distinct dimensions with different predictor profiles, and of modelling bilingual exposure as a continuous construct in research on children’s narrative development.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1What is narrative coherence?
    • 2.2Bilingual exposure and narrative coherence in neurotypical children
    • 2.3Theory of mind and narrative coherence in neurotypical children
    • 2.4Narrative coherence of autistic children
    • 2.5Bilingual exposure, ToM, and narrative coherence
  • 3.The present study
  • 4.Study 1
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Procedure
    • 4.3Tasks
      • 4.3.1Tablet-based task (Theory of Mind)
      • 4.3.2Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (referential and causal coherence)
      • 4.3.3Raven’s Progressive Matrices 2 (non-verbal reasoning)
      • 4.3.4Test for Receptive Grammar and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (linguistic abilities)
    • 4.4Analysis
    • 4.5Results
      • 4.5.1Descriptive analysis results
      • 4.5.2Regression results
        • Preliminary analyses
        • Referential coherence
        • Causal coherence
        • Post-hoc analyses
        • Sensitivity analysis
  • 5.Study 2
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Procedure and measures
    • 5.3Findings
      • 5.3.1RQ4 — Overview of change patterns
      • 5.3.2RQ5 — Qualitative case analyses
        • ASD (129 months; bilingual; 26% HLexposure; autistic)
        • TD1 (82 months; bilingual; 4% HLexposure; neurotypical)
        • TD4 (62 months; English monolingual; neurotypical)
        • TD5 (77 months; English monolingual; neurotypical)
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Group difference: Autistic vs. neurotypical children
    • 6.2The roles of ToM and bilingual exposure
  • 7.Limitations, implications, and future directions
  • Data availability
  • CRediT author contributions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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