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Gonville & 91ֱ�� College alumnus Rabbi David Ariel Sher (Psychology and Education 2019) has had his MPhil research published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Rabbi Sher is now . His current research focuses on recovery from persecutory delusions. He is supervised by Professor Daniel Freeman, a world authority in psychosis.

Rabbi Sher received a distinction for his MPhil and his research was supported by a Research Grant from 91ֱ��.

“This is the very first peer-reviewed study to focus on autism within the UK Jewish community and 20 schools, and practitioners and parents caring for 168 children took part,” Rabbi Sher says.

The study, written with Dr Jenny Gibson and Dr Wendy Browne, explored experiences and perspectives of educational practitioners and parents of Hebrew–English bilingual autistic children on bilingualism and monolingualism, and used interpretative phenomenological analysis.

“Although there is no empirical evidence showing that teaching autistic children a second language is harmful, there is a widely held, outdated view, that learning two languages will confuse autistic children and prevent their proficiency in English.” Rabbi Sher explained.

“Practitioners of all backgrounds therefore often advise teaching autistic children only one language. However, this often prevents communal, familial, and religious integration. Such monolingual approaches are sometimes referred to as ‘forced monolingualism’. Our research found that this unnuanced approach was not prevalent nor encouraged within Jewish schools.”

The analysis found that religious continuity is a crucial factor in bilingual decision-making, and that both practitioners and parents felt having to adopt a monolingual approach was unjust.

To read the full article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders: