Metaphor comprehension in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Metaphor comprehension was studied in three groups of children from 6 to 12 years old: a group with autism spectrum disorder with level 2 severity (ASD, n = 22) and two comparison groups with typical development: one matched with the ASD group on chronological age (TCD group, n = 22) and the other matched on linguistic age (TLD group, n = 22). The TCD group performed better than the TLD group, which performed better than the ASD group, on the comprehension of both conventional and novel metaphors, with better performance found on conventional metaphors than on novel ones. We suggest that both linguistic and extralinguistic competencies (usually limited in level 2 ASD) would be necessary for understanding metaphors, which would be facilitated by their frequency and familiarity.