Maria Antonietta Pinto

Metaphor comprehension in autistic spectrum disorders: Case studies of two high-functioning children

This article presents case studies on metaphor comprehension in two boys with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder, aged 9;1 (9 years, 1 month) and 8;11. The participants were assessed twice, before and after an intervention program aimed at improving their social skills. The focus of the article is on the specific patterns exhibited by each child in a test of metaphor comprehension that elicits verbal explanation of metaphors, and is targeted at 4–6-year-old typically developing children. The two children had age-appropriate cognitive and verbal abilities, as measured by WISC-III and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. At the first assessment, performance on both children was within the average range of typically developing 5-year-old children, but they differed in their patterns of response. At the second time of assessment both the children’s performance had improved, but each in a different manner. The discussion reconsiders the qualitative aspects emerging from the assessments performed at the two time points of the study, raises theoretical issues about metaphor comprehension, and points to possible implications for diagnosis and intervention.

Novel Metaphors Comprehension in a Child with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Study on Assessment and Treatment

Until the first decade of the current millennium, the literature on metaphor comprehension highlighted typical difficulties in children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). More recently, some scholars have devised special programs for enhancing the capability of understanding metaphors in these children. This article presents a case study based on a treatment aiming at enhancing novel metaphor comprehension in a high-functioning child with ASD. M.M., a pseudoacronym for an 8;10 year-old boy, diagnosed with high-functioning ASD, was first assessed with a metaphor comprehension test. This testing (at time T0) highlighted a rigid refusal of metaphors and a marked tendency toward literal interpretation. A baseline treatment (8 sessions of 45–60 min each, twice a week) was implemented, based on a series of recognition, denomination and emotion comprehension activities. M.M.s metaphor comprehension was assessed a second time (T1), followed by the experimental treatment (same duration and frequency as the first one), specifically focused on metaphor comprehension. Finally, a third assessment of metaphor comprehension took place (T2), followed by a last assessment 4 months later (follow-up, T3). The comparison between the performances at the metaphor comprehension test across the four assessments, from T0 to T3, showed that the baseline treatment produced no effect at all, whereas a significant improvement appeared at T2, just after the experimental treatment, later confirmed at the follow up. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed an evident improvement in the way M.M. handled the semantic issues posed by the metaphors of the test, in line with the strategies he was taught during the treatment.

Profile of the linguistic and metalinguistic abilities of a gifted child with autism spectrum disorder: A case study

This study analyses the case of a gifted child (9;6 year) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who had a particularly high verbal IQ (146) and a specific cognitive, linguistic, and metalinguistic profile. A description of some salient behavioral characteristics of the child is provided. A metalinguistic ability test assessing metagrammatical, metasemantic, and metaphonological abilities and a metaphor comprehension test were administered. Both tests place high value on justifications of responses, which permits investigators to grasp different levels of metalinguistic awareness. The child gave poor metalinguistic responses in subtests assessing metasemantic abilities, contrary to subtests assessing metagrammatical and metaphonological abilities. These discrepant results are interpreted in terms of this child’s specific difficulty with ‘open’ linguistic systems, such as semantics, in spite of his high ‘closed’ language capabilities. The discussion highlights the importance of assessing the meta-level of the verbal competencies of gifted children with ASD.

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

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.

Beyond the Literal Meaning of Words in Children with Klinefelter Syndrome: Two Case Studies

Literature on children with Klinefelter Syndrome (KS) points to general linguistic difficulties in both comprehension and production among other cognitive functions, and in the majority of cases, these coexist with an intellectual level within the norms. In these conditions, children having language delay generally engage in language therapy and are systematically monitored across ages. In this article, we present the profiles of two children with KS (47, XXY), aged 9.1 (Child S) and 13 (Child D), whose language development was assessed as adequate at age 3, and for this reason, did not receive any language treatment. At the present stage, their IQ, as measured by Wechsler Scales (Child S: 92; Child D: 101), is within the norm, but they both present marked weaknesses in pragmatic skills such as figurative language comprehension. The analysis of these two cases points to the need to go beyond global indexes of verbal abilities, as the same global index may mask a wide diversification of individual profiles. In addition, this study underlines the importance of monitoring the developmental trajectories of children like Child D and Child S, because weaknesses in pragmatic skills that are relevant for both academic achievement and social adaptation could emerge at later stages.

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

The study of developmental trajectories in metaphor comprehension has prevailingly addressed typically developing children (TD children, henceforth), and more recently, also children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, henceforth). Monitoring these trajectories longitudinally illuminates potentialities and residual weaknesses in children having had difficulties in handling figurative language. The present study describes the case of a child with ASD, M.M. (a pseudonym) who received a specific intervention when he was 8,10 to improve sensory metaphor comprehension. Afterwards, his capability to explain physico-psychological metaphors, which are more complex, was monitored across a 5-year span. During this interval, M.M was assessed three times at approximately 18 months distance, and compared to a group of TD children matched by age, school grade, number and dates of assessment. The results at a test measuring physico-psychological metaphors are analysed. Beyond quantitative differences in performance, differences in the developmental trajectories of M.M. and the TD children are outlined. Some implications for clinical assessment and intervention with children with ASD are also pointed out.