Comparison of Perception of Auditory and Visual Embodied Metaphors between Children with Mild Autism and Normal Ones

Articles in Press

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
M. Madanifard 1
S. Bahrami-Khorshid 1
S. Akbari Chermahinin 2
H. Ameri 1
1 Tarbiat Modares University
2 University of Arak
Abstract
Autism is a neurocognitive disorder. Many children with autism do not have a change in language and usually tend to have literal interpretations of phrases, which makes it difficult to understand metaphorical language, which can be seen in both visual and visual metaphors. The aim of this study was to compare auditory and visual metaphorical perception in children with mild autism and normal children. The present study is a cross-sectional and causal-comparative study. The statistical sample of this study includes 30 boys aged 7 to 10 years with mild autism studying in educational centers for exceptional children in Mashhad and 30 normal children matched in terms of age who were selected by convenience sampling method. After initial language assessment, they were assessed by metaphorical perception test and U Mann-Whitney test and SPSS 23 software were used to analyze the data. The results of data analysis showed that in metaphorical perception in general there is a significant difference between autistic and normal children (P <0.001), also, in understanding visual and auditory metaphors, the two groups showed a significant difference (P <0/001). The obtained results indicate that compared to normal children, children with autism have a lower performance in terms of understanding visual and auditory metaphors, and considering this issue can be used in planning and designing educational content and rehabilitation interventions in order to improve educational performance and social benefit of these children.

Keywords

Subjects

• رافعی، ط. (1385)، اوتیسم، ارزیابی و درمان. تهران: دانژه.
• Adachi, T., Koeda, T., Hirabayashi, S., Maeoka, Y., Shiota, M., Wright, E. C., & Wada, A. (2004). The metaphor and sarcasm scenario test: A new instrument to help differentiate high functioning pervasive developmental disorder from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Brain and Development, 26(5): 301-306.
• Baixauli-Fortea, I., Miranda Casas, A., Berenguer-Forner, C., Colomer-Diago, C., & Roselló-Miranda, B. (2019). Competencia pragmática de niños con trastorno del espectro autista. Impacto de la teoría de la mente, la memoria de trabajo verbal, los síntomas del TDAH y el lenguaje estructural. Neuropsicología aplicada: niño, 8(2): 101-112.
• Bialeka-Pikul, M. (2003). Metaphors in preschool child thinking about the mind. Journal Psychology of Language and Communication, 7(2): 37-47.
• Cacciari, C. (2014). The Place of Idioms in a Literal and Metaphorical World. C. Cacciari and P. Tabossi. Idioms Processing, Structure, and Interpretation, 27-57.
• Chahboun, S., Vulchanov, V., Saldaña, D., Eshuis, H., & Vulchanova, M. (2016). Can you play with fire and not hurt yourself? A comparative study in figurative language comprehension between individuals with and without autism spectrum disorder. PloS one, 11(12): e0168571.
• Chahboun, S., Vulchanov, V., Saldaña, D., Eshuis, H., & Vulchanova, M. (2017). Can you tell it by the prime? A study of metaphorical priming in high‐functioning autism in comparison with matched controls. International journal of language & communication disorders. 52(6): 766-785.
• Chiappe DL, Chiappe P. (2007). The role of working memory in metaphor production and comprehension. J Mem Lang, 56:172–88.
• De Villiers, P. A., de Villiers, J. G., Diaz, S., Cheung, C., Alig, R., & Raditz, V. (2011). Non-literal language and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorders. In Poster presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, San Diego, CA.
• Frith U. 1989. Autism: explaining the enigma. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Gernsbacher M. A. & Pripas-Kapit S. R. (2012). Who’s missing the point? A commentary on claims that autistic persons have a specific deficit in figurative language comprehension. Metaphor and Symbol, 27(1): 93-105.
• Gidley Larson J. C., Bastian A. J., Donchin O., Shadmehr R., Mostofsky S. H. (2008). Acquisition of internal models of motor tasks in children with autism. Brain.; 131(Pt 11), 2894 290310.1093/brain/awn226 [PMC free article] [PubMed]
• Gowen E., Hamilton A. (2013). Motor abilities in autism: a review using a computational context. J. Autism Dev. Disord, 43: 323–344 10.1007/s10803-012-1574-0.
• Grandin T. (1995). Thinking in pictures: and other reports from my life with autism. New York: Doubleday.
• Happé, F., & Frith, U. (2006). The weak coherence account: detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1): 5-25.
• Hill, E. L. (2004). Executive dysfunction in autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8 (1).
• Huang, S. F., Oi, M., & Taguchi, A. (2015). Comprehension of figurative language in Taiwanese children with autism: The role of theory of mind and receptive vocabulary. Clinical linguistics & phonetics, 29(8-10): 764-775.
• Johnson, D. C., and Wade, M. G., 2009. Children at risk for developmental coordination disorder: judgement of changes in action capabilities. [Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural]. Dev. Med. Child Neurol.Vol. 51, no. 5, pp. 397–403.
• Kalandadze, T., Norbury, C., Nærland, T., & Næss, K. A. B. (2018). Figurative langua
comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a meta-analytic review. Autism, 22: 99-117.
• Kail RV, Siegel. The development of mnemonic encoding in children: from perception to abstraction. In: Kail RV, Hagen JW, editors. (1977). Perspectives on the development of memory and cognition. Hillsdale: Erlbaum, p. 61–88.
• Kamio Y, Toichi M. (2000). Dual access to semantic in autism: is pictorial access superior to verbal access? J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 41:859–67.
• Kogan N. (1975). Metaphoric thinking in children: developmental and individual difference aspects. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child development; Denver, Colorado.
• Kogan N, Chadrow M. (1986). Children’s comprehension of metaphor in the pictorial and verbal modality. Int J Behav Dev, 9:285–95.
• Kogan N, Connor K, Gross A, Fava D. (1980). Understanding visual metaphor: developmental and individual differences. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev, 45(Serial No. 183):1–78.
• Landa, R. J., & Goldberg, M. C. (2005). Language, social, and executive functions in high functioning autism: A continuum of performance. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(5): 557-573.
• Mackay G, Shaw A. (2004). A comparative study of figurative language in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Child Lang Teach Ther, 20:13–32.
• Mashal N, Kasirer A. (2012). Principal component analysis study of visual and verbal metaphoric comprehension in children with autism and learning disabilities. Res Dev Disabil, 33:274–82.
• Nikolaenko N. (2004). Metaphorical and associative thinking in healthy children and in children with Asperger’s syndrome at different ages. Hum Physiol, 30(5):532–36.
• Olofson, E. L., Casey, D., Oluyedun, O. A., Van Herwegen, J., Becerra, A., & Rundblad, G. (2014). Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder Comprehend Lexicalized and Novel Primary Conceptual Metaphors. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 44:2568-2583.
• Özçalişkan, Ş. (2005). On learning to draw the distinction between physical and metaphorical motion: Is metaphor an early emerging cognitive and linguistic capacity? Journal of Child Language, 32(2): 291-318.
• Pouscoulous, N. (2011). Metaphor: For adults only?. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 25(1): 51-79.
• Rafie, Talat. (2006). Autism, Evaluation and Treatment. Tehran: Danjeh.
• Rapin I., Dunn M., 2003. Update on the language disorders of individuals on the autistic spectrum. Brain Dev. Vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 166–172.
• Rundblad, G. & Annaz, D. (2010). The atypical development of metaphor and metonymy comprehension in children with autism. Autism, 14(1): 29-46.
• Schopler E, Olley JG. (1982). Comprehensive educational services for autistic children: the TEACCH model. In: Reynolds CR, Gutkin TR, editors. The handbook of school psychology. New York: Wiley, p. 629–43.
• Sternberg, R. (2008). Cognitive Psychology. Thomson, Wadsworth. 4th ed.
• Vulchanova, M., Saldaña, D., Chahboun, S. & Vulchanov, V. (2015). Figurative language processing in atypical populations: the ASD perspective. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 9: 1-11.
• Whyte, E. M., Nelson, K. E. & Scherfa, K. S. (2014). Idiom, syntax, and advanced theory of mind abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57: 120-130.
• Zheng, Q., Jia, Z., & Liang, D. (2015). Metaphor and metonymy comprehension in Chinese-speaking children with high-functioning autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 10: 51-58.
Language Related Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 13 July 2025