Impact of bilingualism on the course of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

In a published systematic review, the authors investigated the effects of second language learning on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It was hypothesized that bilingualism can both alleviate the symptoms of ADHD and worsen the condition.

It is estimated that there are more bilingual people in the world than monolingual people. As a result of the analysis, the researchers concluded that bilingualism has an insignificant effect on executive functions in ADHD (the ability to arbitrarily switch and hold attention, the development of working memory and the ability to block impulses unrelated to the task at hand and not to react to distracting stimuli), its value is so small that it has no effect on the symptoms of ADHD.

The hypothesis that a second language impairs executive function in a child with ADHD was also not confirmed.

The authors note that the available scientific data on this problem is limited, and further research is needed.