Bilingualism Effects in Metaphor and Simile Comprehension and Production in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Figurative language presents challenges for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
• The impact of bilingualism on non-literal language in children with ASD is understudied.
• This research investigates metaphor and simile processing in monolingual and bilingual children with ASD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine metaphor and simile comprehension and production in monolingual and bilingual Greek-speaking children with high-functioning ASD.
• To explore the influence of non-verbal intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and working memory on performance.
• To address the gap in understanding bilingualism's effect on non-literal language in ASD.

Main Methods:

• Assessed comprehension and production of metaphors and similes in 33 monolingual and 18 bilingual Greek-speaking children with ASD.
• Administered tasks evaluating non-verbal intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and working memory.
• Analyzed error patterns in figurative language tasks.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in metaphor comprehension between groups; higher non-verbal intelligence correlated with better performance in bilinguals.
• Bilingual autistic children outperformed monolingual peers in metaphor production, potentially linked to higher non-verbal intelligence.
• Monolingual children showed an advantage in simile comprehension; literal interpretations were the primary error type for both groups.

Conclusions:

• Bilingualism may offer advantages in non-literal language processing for children with ASD, challenging negative misconceptions.
• Non-verbal intelligence appears to play a significant role in figurative language abilities in bilingual children with ASD.
• Pragmatic language difficulties, evidenced by literal interpretations, remain a core characteristic of ASD.