ERIC Number: EJ966844
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1750-9467
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Establishing Metaphorical Reasoning in Children with Autism
Persicke, Angela; Tarbox, Jonathan; Ranick, Jennifer; St. Clair, Megan
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, v6 n2 p913-920 Apr-Jun 2012
Researchers have shown that children with autism have difficulty with non-literal language, such as irony, sarcasm, deception, humor, and metaphors. To date, few studies have attempted to remediate these deficits, and no studies of which we are aware have attempted to teach children with autism to understand metaphors. Metaphorical reasoning consists of complex verbal behavior, involving relations of coordination, hierarchy, and distinction, at a minimum. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate multiple exemplar training for teaching children with autism to attend to relevant features of the context in which a metaphor is used and to engage in the required relational responding in order to respond correctly to metaphorical questions. Participants included three children, ages 5-7. Results suggest that multiple exemplar training is effective for teaching children with autism to understand metaphors. Furthermore, generalization to untrained metaphors was found for all participants. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Autism, Figurative Language, Young Children, Thinking Skills, Context Effect, Generalization, Verbal Ability, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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