Abstract

Research question: Beyond socio-interactive and behavioral deficits, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show exceptional cognitive capacities. Incipient evidence shows that these may involve elevated second-language (L2) learning abilities. Yet, research is scant and existing reports have targeted broad receptive and productive skills, prompting an unexplored question: How do elevated L2 skills in ASD manifest across overlooked domains, such as vocabulary and pragmatics?Methodology: We report on the case of LC, an 11-year-old Chilean child with ASD who learned English via minimal audiovisual exposure in a fully Spanish-speaking environment.Data and analysis: Our protocol included systematic assessments of language exposure and development, neuropsychological outcomes, and bilingual tests of language production and comprehension as well as syntactic, semantic, translation, vocabulary, and prosodic skills.Findings: LC exhibited high L2 (English) abilities despite null social interactions in this language, alongside lower first-language (Spanish) skills despite constant exposure. His L2 abilities were most notable in speech fluency, pronunciation, and vocabulary.Originality: This is the first report of exceptional L2 skills in ASD including fine-grained measures of multiple linguistic and pragmatic domains. The uniqueness of this case adds to a rare corpus of paradoxical language dominance in children with this condition.Significance: LC's paradoxical dominance may reflect a preference for engaging, non-socially mediated stimuli, inviting reconsiderations of language learning patterns in ASD.