Bilingualism May Be Protective Against Executive Function and Visual Processing Deficits Among Children With Attention Problems

Objective: The current study examined how the opposing effects of bilingualism and attention problems operate on executive functioning, visual processing, and verbal fluency in children with clinically significant levels of attention problems. Method: We tested whether bilingualism moderated associations between attention problems and visual processing, executive functioning, and verbal fluency. Results: Bilingual children (n = 331) showed visual processing advantages relative to their monolingual peers (n = 165), but only at higher, and not lower, levels of attention problems. Bilingualism did not moderate the association between attention problems and interference control; however, across all children, those with higher levels of attention problems had more difficulty with interference control. Monolingual children demonstrated advantages in verbal fluency relative to bilingual children, but this did not vary with attention problems. Conclusion: Visual processing advantages in bilinguals are detected among children with heightened attention problems, but advantages in interference control are not; findings may have implications for classroom interventions.