Novel metaphors comprehension in a child with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders. 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 TO) 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 (Ti), 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 TO 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 treatmen

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

Sensitizing a Gifted Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder towards Social Cognition: From Assessment to Treatment

Social cognition difficulties are well documented in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This clinical case study reports on social cognition assessment and treatment of a gifted child, SC (9 years), with ASD and an extraordinarily high verbal IQ (146). The assessment of theory of mind, emotion recognition and pragmatic abilities showed some weaknesses in these areas. The 4- month treatment was divided into 14 sessions and was aimed at helping SC to improve his abilities to recognize emotions and comprehend mental states. The main technique used in the intervention was “social reading” with video clips. The initial assessment was repeated after the treatment and in a follow up session. The results of this case study suggest that “social reading” can be considered as a beneficial technique for children with high-functioning ASD, and especially in giftedness conditions

Video didattico sull’uso interattivo del TAM-3

This booklet accompanies a video that shows how students discuss about the answers they gave to a metalinguistic test they were previously administered on individual grounds. A tutor leads the interactions between the participants in view of enhancing their awareness of structural features of language and meanings. The booklet describes the nature and the function of the video, presents the transcripts of the interactions, and highlights the turning points of the taking consciousness processes

THAM-2 Test de habilidades metalingüísticas nº 2 (9-14 años)

This book is the manual of a Spanish, validated metalinguistic test targeting children 9-14 years, the THAM-2. It describes in detail the theoretical background, the protocol of the 6 subtests that compose the test, the administration and the coding procedures.To facilitate the assignment of scores, extensive exemplification of possible answers is provided for each item. The final section describes the main psychometric characteristics of the test, provides descriptive values for each score in each subtest at each age level, as well as the T scores

Video didattico sull’uso interattivo del TAM-2

This booklet is an educational resource that accompanies a video where children discuss about the possible answers to a metalinguistic test, under the guidance of an adult. The booklet describes the nature and the function of the video and reports the transcripts of the interactions between children and the tutor of the focus group. Some turning points are highlighted during these interactions, where the participants evolve towards more advanced levels of metalinguistic awareness. Teachers and educators can draw on these commented interactions for creating favourable conditions to enhance metalinguistic awareness in classroom activities

Metalinguistic Excercises as Classroom Activities

This book presents a series of exercises aimed at developing metalinguistic abilities applied to different types of texts. They address the two age levels of the metalinguistic tests involved in the MATEL Project (Metalinguistic Awareness Tests in European Languages - 543277-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA2-KA2MP), namely the MAT-2 (English acronym for Metalinguistic Ability Test n-2; 9-14 years), and the MAT-3 (English acronym for Metalinguistic Ability Test n-3; 16 years and beyond). Beyond differences in contents, these exercises share important commonalities in objectives and modalities. 1) The first objective is to sensitize teachers, pupils or students to the way concepts and questions are phrased as key to understanding what texts aim at conveying. 2) As a consequence, this type of training makes students practice a series of metalinguistic abilities, namely metasemantic, metagrammatical and metapragmatic, as the “royal road” to develop a reasoning method and study skills in general. 3) These exercises are practiced as classroom activities, i.e. as a form of intellectual training to which the whole classroom can contribute, under the guidance of teachers who address questions on critical points and lead the discussion afterwards. Each University involved as a Partner in the MATEL Project contributed to this book, which means that the four languages of the Partnership are all represented, namely Italian, Spanish, French and German

Test de habilidades metalingüísticas para adolescentes y adultos:THAM-3

This book is the manual of a Spanish metalinguistic test targeting adolescents and adults, called THAM-3.. It describes the theoretical background, the protocol of the three subtests that compose the test, the administration and coding procedures. To facilitate the assignment of the scores, extensive exemplification of the possible answers is provided for each item. The final section presents the major psychometric characteristics, basic descriptive statistics for each type of score in each subtest, and the T scores

Orthographic control in relation to metalinguistic awareness: Studies in three different French-speaking contexts

This study explores the relationship between metalinguistic awareness and orthographic control. A previous study on a French-speaking sample in Niamey (Niger) revealed an inverse correlation between the metalinguistic scores at an Acceptability task and the number of orthographic errors in the responses to that task. The authors put forward that orthographic control involves an implicit control over the relationship between the orthographic form of words and their meaning, which can be ascribed to an intuitive, ‘epilinguistic’ form of language awareness. The same design was then replicated with two more samples of French-speaking preadolescents of the same age range (11-14), one in Toulouse (France) and the other in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire). Considering the three samples together, the current study aimed at verifying: (a) whether the metalinguistic and orthographic performance varied as a function of geographical and sociolinguistic specificities; (b) to what extent the inverse correlations between orthographic errors and metalinguistic performance were confirmed on a broader sample. The results showed that the participants in Abidjan outperformed their peers in Niamey and Toulouse on both metalinguistic awareness and orthographic control grounds. The inverse correlation between metalinguistic performance and orthographic errors was fully confirmed on the whole sampl