Unraveling nonliteral meaning: Figurative competence in autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia

The aim of the current study was to examine figurative competence among upper-elementary Greek-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and dyslexia compared to typically developing (TD) peers, with a specific focus on how structural language skills (i.e., receptive vocabulary and morphosyntax), nonlinguistic factors (i.e., chronological age and nonverbal reasoning ability), and reading comprehension (RC) contribute to figurative language understanding. A total of 105 children (35 per group; M = 10.5 years, SD = 1), matched for age, gender, and nonverbal reasoning ability had participated. Results indicated that both clinical samples performed significantly lower than TD controls on the figurative language comprehension task, regardless of figurative type, with no statistically significant differences observed between the ASD and Dyslexia groups. Proverbs were consistently more challenging than idioms across all participants, a disparity especially marked in those with neurodevelopmental conditions. In addition, both groups demonstrated reduced performance in reading comprehension relative to their TD peers. While structural language deficits were evident among participants with ASD and dyslexia, the ASD group displayed a more heterogeneous profile, showing comparatively milder impairments. Regression analyses showed distinct predictive patterns: in the TD group, figurative competence was positively associated with age and RC, whereas in both target groups, morphosyntactic ability emerged as the primary predictor. These findings underscore the persistent difficulties figurative language poses for children with ASD and dyslexia and highlight the role of structural language skills, particularly morphosyntactic ability, in supporting nonliteral understanding. Implications for educational assessment and intervention practices are also discussed.