Sensory and Physico-Psychological Metaphor Comprehension in Children with ASD: A Preliminary Study on the Outcomes of a Treatment

Abstract

Recent research into difficulties in figurative language in children with ASD highlighted that it is possible to devise training interventions to overcome these difficulties by teaching specific strategies. This study describes how children with ASD can improve their capability to explain metaphors with a treatment. Two types of metaphors, in the “X is Y” form, were addressed: sensory and physico-psychological. To face the difficulties posed by these metaphors, the adult taught two strategies: inserting the connective “is like” between “X” and “Y”, which transforms the metaphor into a simile; comparing “X” and “Y” by means of thinking maps. Two tests of metaphor comprehension were used, one based on sensory and the other on physico-psychological metaphors. Sixteen 10 year-old children participated into the study, including an experimental group formed by 8 children with ASD (n = 4) which had received the treatment, and a control group (n = 4) which had not, and 8 typically-developing (TD) children. At the post-test, the experimental group significantly outperformed the controls in explaining both types of metaphors, but only in the sensory metaphors did their performances reach TD children’s levels. These results illuminate how clinical treatment can positively influence the developmental trajectories of metaphor comprehension.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on metaphor comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: Do task properties matter?

“…Intervention programs concerning metaphor comprehension in ASD are very few, but results are promising. For instance, Mashal and Kasirer (2011) and Melogno, Pinto, and Di Filippo (2017) used thinking maps to enhance the abstraction of semantic features in metaphors. Teachers, special educators, and speech and language therapists could capitalize on this evidence and develop strategies to stimulate metaphorical skills.…”

“…To begin with, the students could be reminded that figurative language involves the use of words in nonliteral ways. Then the students could be encouraged to use their metalinguistic skills to consider the overlapping features between the topic and vehicle of the metaphor (Nippold, 2016), similarly to the approach adopted in Mashal and Kasirer (2011) and in Melogno et al (2017). In addition, the students could be asked to collect metaphors from different sources such as advertisements and literature, including the context in which they occur (Nippold, 2016).…”

Pragmatic competence and its relationship with the linguistic and cognitive profile of young adults with dyslexia

“…Extending treatment to include interventions focusing on the pragmatic skills of individuals with dyslexia should, thus, be of primary interest in order to promote successful access to all levels of education and inclusion across their lifespan. Recently, a number of training programmes to promote pragmatic abilities and figurative language have been developed (Gabbatore et al, 2015;Melogno, Pinto, & Di Filippo, 2017), and we believe that, with proper adjustments, they could be beneficial also for individuals with dyslexia.…”

Monitoring developmental trajectories in novel metaphor comprehension in children with ASD: a case study

“…Thirdly, we may wonder whether the intervention to improve metaphor comprehension must address sensory and physico-psychological metaphors at different times in development or in combination at a later stage. Some preliminary results (Melogno, Pinto, & Di Filippo, 2017) would suggest that this combination can yield significant improvements, which let us think that, in this area, treatment can accelerate spontaneous development, at least to a certain extent.…”