Yes, people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), are likely to take spoken language literally and can have difficulty in reading body language, which creates difficulty in understanding figurative and methaphoric language. This can be overcome for some individuals by being specifically taught about common metaphors etc.
Dear Vukoja,
Thank you for your answer. Can you give me some articles or research to prove the problems on the metaphoric/figurative language in this population?
Kostas
If you visualize the metaphor/figurative language there will be no problem. But just in spoken/verbal language it can be a problem since it will be "invisible". When visualizing the metaphor/figurative language, it will become systematic and visible.
Some studies have shown difficulties in the analysis of metaphors in language. The results show a literal analysis of metaphorical language, even though this subjects had good performances in other linguistic aspects. This difficulty is also evident (possibly related) in symbolic play.
Dear Cristina Pereira,
There are some articles about this topic? Articles, investigations which to prove these problems.
This is the article I just published on using visualization.
Modified CBT using visualization for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), anxiety and avoidance behavior – a quasi-experimental open pilot study
ELIZABETH EKMAN and ARTO J. HILTUNEN
Department of Social and Psychological Studies, Section of Psychology, Karlstad University, Sweden
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 56, 641–648.
Dear Professor Ekman,
Thank you very much. I will read this interesting article!
Hi Kostas,
you should find some relevant work if you log onto the Autism Research Centre site at Cambridge University. They allow researchers to access and download most of their published work as a PD resource. This is the Baron-Cohen group and they have carried out quite a bit of work on this topic.
Franceska Happe at the Institute of Psychiatry in London has also published work on this.
There is some interesting related work on synaesthesia, some relating this sensory overlap phenomenon to ASD.
Hope this help[s,
Ken
Hi Kostas,
You might want to check the following articles on the topic, which I have found very useful:
Whyte, E. M., Nelson, K.E. and Khan, K.S. (2011) Learning of Idiomatic Language Expressions in a Group Intervention for Children. Autism. 17 (4), pp. 449-464.
MacKay, G. and Shaw, A. (2004) A comparative study of figurative language in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 20 (13).
Happe,F. (1995) Understanding minds and metaphors: Insights from the study of figurative language in autism. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity. 10(4), pp.275–295.
Chiang, H. and Lin, Y. (2007) Reading Comprehension Instruction for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review of the Literature. Focus Autism Other Developmental Disabilities. Hammill Institute on Disabilities (22) 259
We also did a study from computational perspective to see what factors in the text influence reading comprehension in autism, and metaphors were one of the factors with strongest effect. You can find the paper here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281584904_Six_Good_Predictors_of_Autistic_Text_Comprehension
Conference Paper Six Good Predictors of Autistic Text Comprehension
Dear Professor Victoria Yaneva,
Happy New Year and wishing you all the best!!
Thank you very much!!
Dear Professor Ekman,
My psychologist said me that I have autism. Please allow me to give my version.
Your answer "If you visualize the metaphor/figurative language there will be no problem. But just in spoken/verbal language it can be a problem since it will be "invisible". When visualizing the metaphor/figurative language, it will become systematic and visible."
My version : The metaphor/figurative language needs to obey the natural laws when applied if it does not obey to these laws then it is impossible to exist and it will confuse the autistic brain
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