Comprehension of metaphor was examined in 36 children ranging in age from 55 months to 186 months. The subjects were audiotaped while answering questions about a target sentence that was contextually anomalous. Five pictures were drawn to accompany each story, two relating to the literal meaning of the target sentence, two to the metaphoric meaning of the target sentence, and one with no apparent connection to the story. Children's responses were analyzed for evidence of literal comprehension through picture manipulation, of metaphoric comprehension through picture manipulation, and of metaphoric comprehension through verbal explanation. Six general stages of comprehension were observed in the study and were found to be compatible with those stages described by J. Piaget. The stages ranged from difficulty with literal comprehension to an immediate understanding and verbal explanation of the metaphoric relation. The stages were developmentally linked in that both the depth of understanding and the ability to explain metaphoric structures increased with age. (RL)