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It is considered to be particularly interesting to enrich the scientific overview investigating the comorbidities of specific learning disorders (SLDs) in young adults. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the psychosocial and relational profiles associated with the presence of learning difficulties in a population of university students. The hypothesis is that young adults with SLDs have lower psychological and socio-relational functioning than their typical-development peers. We further hypothesized that the socio-relational difficulties of students with SLDs could be explained not only by referring to the presence of a learning disorder, but also by considering some variables that may follow the experience of students with SLDs. The results highlighted that students with SLDs, compared to their typical-development peers, have low self-efficacy, high academic anxiety scores, emotional problems, and issues with peers. We finally suggest considering these aspects as early as the diagnostic process to facilitate an effective treatment plan for learning disorders to prevent, in terms of developmental trajectory, the manifestation of these aspects in adulthood.

This study describes a treatment implemented with a 13.7-year-old child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (conventionally, S;IQ: 111) to enhance his capabilities in writing persuasive texts, a particularly challenging task for individuals with ASD without intellectual disability as it involves a set of socio-cognitive abilities in addition to specific writing skills to persuade a reader. The treatment was implemented via Skype during the lockdown caused by COVID-19. The assessment of the texts took place at three moments: baseline 1, baseline 2 after two weeks, and post-test after an 8 session-treatment. Three criteria were used: presence of structural components (topic, reasons, explanations, counter-arguments, ending);elaborateness of the components;amount of mental state terms. The comparison between S’ performance and typically developing controls at baseline 1 showed marked differences in favour of the controls in all measures, which mostly disappeared at post-test. The discussion focuses on the interpretation of the improvements. © 2021. All Rights Reserved.

francaisLes auteurs analysent le cas d’un enfant de 10 ans 3 mois, conventionnelement appele F, avec trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA), sans deficience intellectuelle. F possedait des habiletes langagieres de base adequates en comprehension (vocabulaire et grammaire) et en production, mais des carences dans l’utilisation pragmatique du langage, dans les fonctions executives et la cognition sociale. L’etude decrit un programme qui visait a ameliorer la capacite de F a comprendre la metaphore, domaine ou l’enfant presentait quelques faiblesses, telles que mesurees par deux tests, l’un centre sur des metaphores sensorielles, et l’autre, sur des metaphores psychologiques. Ce programme offrait une gamme d’activites basees sur l’enseignement de strategies pour analyser les metaphores sous la forme canonique « X est Y », et d’autres exercices d’abstraction des traits semantiques des mots. Au post-test, F montre des progres nets dans les metaphores sensorielles, et des progres plus limites dans les metaphores psychologiques. Les auteurs discutent ces resultats a la lumiere du profil cognitif et neuropsychologique de l’enfant et s’interrogent sur les pistes d’approfondissement que cette etude peut ouvrir. EnglishThe authors analyze the case of a child, “F,” aged 10 years and 3 months, who has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without any intellectual disability. F has adequate basic language abilities in both comprehension (vocabulary and grammar) and production in spite of some weaknesses in the areas of pragmatic language abilities, executive function, and social cognition. This study describes a program aimed at improving metaphor comprehension—an area in which F presented some difficulties—as measured by two metaphor comprehension tests, one based on sensory metaphors and the other on psychological metaphors. The program offered a range of activities where the child was trained to use some strategies to analyze metaphors in the canonical form “X is Y,” and other exercises that trained the child about abstract semantic features of words. At the post-test stage, F showed visible improvements in understanding sensory metaphors, and reduced improvements in understanding psychological metaphors. The authors discuss these outcomes in light of the cognitive and neuropsychological profile of the child and suggest further avenues of research.

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a genetic anomaly involving the presence of one or more supernumerary X chromosomes in male individuals. In the cognitive profile of these individuals, strengths are found in nonverbal abilities, whereas weaknesses are observed in executive function, language, and academic performance. Our study is based on a comparison between eight children diagnosed with KS (47,XXY) (age range: 9-13 years; IQ range: 80-123), with no delay in language development, and eight typically developing (TD) controls. We explored a range of high-level language competencies and Theory of Mind (ToM) in addition to basic language competency. High-level language competencies were assessed by a battery that measures pragmatic language skills and a metaphor comprehension test (MCT). To assess ToM, we administered the corresponding subtest of the NEPSY II. Basic language competence was assessed by the NEPSY II Comprehension of Instructions subtest. Although basic language performance did not differentiate the individuals with KS from the TD controls, relevant differences appeared in some of the high-level language competencies as well as in the ToM task. All tasks in which the individuals with KS performed less well were characterized by complex inferential processes. Some possible clinical and educational implications are discussed.

This study explores novel metaphor comprehension in a 7.2-year-old child (conventionally called RJ) with complete and isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC). RJ’s cognitive level was adequate for his age as well as most of his linguistic competencies. The child’s performance was compared to typically developing (TD) controls on a test assessing novel metaphor comprehension for preschoolers. RJ’s performance showed a delay of about three years in relation to the expected level for his age, and also a significant gap compared to the TDs. The results highlighted the possibility to detect weaknesses in understanding novel metaphors in children with ACC, in spite of their apparently adequate linguistic capabilities. An early detection of a weakness in this area can pave the way to neurolinguistic treatment in order to enhance the understanding of nonliteral meaning, which, in the developmental trajectory, will be increasingly involved in everyday life communication. Future research should explore more in-depth a capability that intrinsically requires high interconnectivity, such as novel metaphor comprehension, in a brain in development where the major tract connecting the two hemispheres is missing.

In this paper, we describe an intervention implemented to assist a 13.2-year-old boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder, G, without intellectual disability, aimed at improving his ability to compose persuasive texts. There was an initial assessment (baseline), an intermediate assessment after two weeks, a six-session intervention phase, and a post-intervention assessment. Our intervention applied two procedures. The first aimed at enhancing general composition abilities in terms of picking (P) ideas, organizing (O) notes, and writing (W) them down (POW), while the second specified the steps to write a persuasive text addressing a possible reader: a topic sentence (T), reasons (R), an explanation (E) for the reasons and the end of the sentence (E) (TREE). These procedures were termed POW + TREE. To analyze G’s texts, three types of measures were used by two raters at baseline, intermediate and post-test time: (a) the presence of the TREE components; (b) the quality of the reasons and explanations for the reasons; (c) the number of mental state terms. All these measures showed relevant quantitative improvements, as well as qualitative changes. In addition, when G’s performance at the end of the intervention was compared to that of typically developing controls, no statistical difference appeared. The results are discussed in light of the potentialities offered by the type of intervention described here.

In this study we explored metaphor and idiom competencies in two clinical populations, children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with Klinefelter syndrome (KS), (age range: 9&ndash, 12), compared to typically developing (TD) children of the same age. These three groups were tested with two multiple-choice tests assessing idiom comprehension through iconic and verbal alternatives and a metaphor comprehension test composed of novel, physical-psychological metaphors, requesting verbal explanations. To these instruments, another test was added, assessing basic sentence comprehension. Performances on the different linguistic tasks were examined by means of discriminant analysis which showed that idiom comprehension had a very small weight in distinguishing children with ASD from TD controls, whereas metaphor explanation did distinguish them. This study suggests that figurative language comprehension is not a &ldquo, core deficit&rdquo, per se in individuals with ASD. Only when the task requires to explicitly construct and explain a semantic mapping between the two terms of a metaphor does the performance of children with ASD significantly deviate from the typical population. These results are interpreted in terms of a difficulty in children with ASD and KS with complex cognitive and linguistic processes and also in relation with clinical assessment.

Social cognition difficulties are well documented in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This clinical case study reports on social cognition assessment and treatment of a gifted child, SC (9 years), with ASD and an extraordinarily high verbal IQ (146). The assessment of theory of mind, emotion recognition and pragmatic abilities showed some weaknesses in these areas. The 4-month treatment was divided into 14 sessions and was aimed at helping SC to improve his abilities to recognize emotions and comprehend mental states. The main technique used in the intervention was “social reading” with video clips. The initial assessment was repeated after the treatment and in a follow up session. The results of this case study suggest that “social reading” can be considered as a beneficial technique for children with high-functioning ASD, and especially in giftedness conditions.

The psychosocial adjustment of siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a relatively recent field of study, but results in literature are often inconsistent, and studies specifically focused on samples of siblings of children with high-functioning ASD are very few. This paper analyzes the level of social impairment (index of broader autism phenotype), the risk of internalizing and externalizing problems (index of psychological adjustment) and the parenting distress in an Italian sample of siblings of children with high-functioning ASD (n = 26). The presence of risk factors (birth order, sex and number of siblings in the family) and the role of the siblings’ age are also explored. The data were collected through self-report instruments administered to parents. The results do not show higher average risk levels for psychosocial adjustment problems, even though a minority of the cases is at risk for social impairments (7.7 %), internalizing (23.1 %), externalizing (3.8 %) and total difficulties (11.5 %) and for distress in the parent–child system (15 %). Distress in the parent-sibling system seems to be modulated by the sibling’s features and to be higher when the sibling is older than the child with ASD. Additionally, a link between difficulties in psychological adjustment and broader autism phenotype is suggested.

Until the first decade of the current millennium, the literature on metaphor comprehension highlighted typical difficulties in children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). More recently, some scholars have devised special programs for enhancing the capability of understanding metaphors in these children. This article presents a case study based on a treatment aiming at enhancing novel metaphor comprehension in a high-functioning child with ASD. M.M., a pseudoacronym for an 8;10 year-old boy, diagnosed with high-functioning ASD, was first assessed with a metaphor comprehension test. This testing (at time T0) highlighted a rigid refusal of metaphors and a marked tendency toward literal interpretation. A baseline treatment (8 sessions of 45-60 minutes each, twice a week) was implemented, based on a series of recognition, denomination and emotion comprehension activities. MM’s metaphor comprehension was assessed a second time (T1), followed by the experimental treatment (same duration and frequency as the first one), specifically focused on metaphor comprehension. Finally, a third assessment of metaphor comprehension took place (T2), followed by a last assessment four months later (follow-up, T3).The comparison between the performances at the metaphor comprehension test across the four assessments, from T0 to T3, showed that the baseline treatment produced no effect at all, whereas a significant improvement appeared at T2, just after the experimental treatment, later confirmed at the follow up. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed an evident improvement in the way M.M. handled the semantic issues posed by the metaphors of the test, in line with the strategies he was taught during the treatment

EnglishThe authors describe the case of a child who was examined when he was 9 years 2 months, after having received a diagnosis of Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) when he was 4 years 10 months. The authors focus on the child's solitary and imagination activities, particularly his imaginary companion and his paracosms, within a general profile of his cognitive, linguistic and social cognition abilities. The child's profile was established partly by using standardized tests assessing intellectual, linguistic and social cognition abilities, and partly by using a semi-structured interview focused on the child's representations of his friend relationships. The results at the tests were analyzed in relation with the age norms for typical development, whereas the child's representations of friend relationships were analyzed in qualitative terms. The child showed brilliant general cognitive capabilities, adult-like language abilities and sophisticated intellectual concerns. However, some social cognition subtests and the semi-structured interview highlighted relevant difficulties in reading mental states. His solitary behaviors were overdeveloped and his imagination activities showed atypical characteristics. The present case study analyzes the distinctive features of these activities in quantitative, qualitative and functional terms, stressing the metacognitive and the emotional dimension inherent to the child's imaginative representations. francaisLes auteurs analysent le cas d'un enfant examine a 9 ans 2 mois, a la suite d'un diagnostic de troubles envahissants du developpement non specifies (TED-NS) effectue a l'âge de 4 ans 10 mois, en considerant son profil cognitif, langagier et de cognition sociale, et la nature de ses conduites solitaires et d'imagination, particulierement celles concernant son compagnon imaginaire et ses paracosmes. Le profil de l'enfant est etabli sur la base de tests standardises, d'intelligence, de langage et de cognition sociale, et d'un interrogatoire semi-structure. Ces donnees sont analysees en partie en rapport avec les normes d'âge prevues par les tests, et en partie dans leurs aspects idiosyncrasiques, tels qu'ils emergent des declarations spontanees de l'enfant et de son diagnostic precedent. L'enfant fait preuve de brillantes capacites cognitives generales, d'habiletes langagieres recherchees et d'interets intellectuels sophistiques. Toutefois, certaines epreuves de cognition sociale et l'interrogatoire semi-structure mettent en evidence des difficultes importantes dans sa representation des intentions des autres vis-a-vis de lui. Les comportements solitaires de l'enfant sont tres marques, et s'accompagnent d'une activite d'imagination hyperdeveloppee. La presente etude analyse les traits distinctifs de cette activite d'imagination du point de vue quantitatif, qualitatif et fonctionnel, en mettant l'accent sur la fonction metacognitive et sur la dimension emotionnelle inherentes a cet univers imaginaire.

Resume But Les auteurs illustrent le cas d’un enfant avec troubles envahissants du developpement non specifies (TED-NS), en analysant certains aspects de ses competences linguistiques et communicatives, en particulier, les usages metaphoriques, en comprehension et en production. Methode Les auteurs confrontent et analysent du point de vue cognitif et linguistique certains echantillons de langage spontane correspondant a deux differentes phases du developpement de l’enfant etudie. Les premiers sont extraits d’une cassette video tournee en famille, remontant a âge de trois ans et 11 mois, lorsque l’enfant avait ete diagnostique comme etant TED-NS. Les seconds font partie d’une reevaluation effectuee a l’âge de neuf ans. Resultats L’enfant, a l’âge de trois ans et 11 mois, presente des atypies linguistiques et communicatives dans ses usages metaphoriques, par rapport aux competences des enfants de meme âge a developpement typique. Ces atypies sont toujours presentes et meme accentuees a l’âge de neuf ans. A cet âge-la, que ce soit au cours d’un testing specifique de comprehension de metaphores ou dans le langage spontanement utilise pendant la consultation, on assiste, d’une part, a des usages pseudometaphoriques et, de l’autre, a une perte de rapport dans la communication avec autrui, lorsque le langage devient metaphorique. Conclusion Ce cas suggere l’importance de prendre en compte les competences metaphoriques en tant que domaine de recherche pouvant contribuer a identifier ulterieurement certaines caracteristiques des TED-NS et a specifier les sous-types linguistiques et communicatifs qui caracterisent cette population clinique.

The present case study investigates the effects of a cognitive training of verbal working memory that was proposed for Davide, a fourteen-year-old boy diagnosed with mild intellectual disability. The program stimulated attention, inhibition, switching, and the ability to engage either in verbal dual tasks or in producing inferences after the content of a short passage had been encoded in episodic memory. Key elements in our program included (1) core training of target cognitive mechanisms; (2) guided practice emphasizing concrete strategies to engage in exercises; and (3) a variable amount of adult support. The study explored whether such a complex program produced near transfer effects on an untrained dual task assessing verbal working memory and whether effects on this and other target cognitive mechanisms (i.e., attention, inhibition and switching) were long-lasting and produced far transfer effects on cognitive flexibility. The effects of the intervention program were investigated with a research design consisting of four subsequent phases lasting eight or ten weeks, each preceded and followed by testing. There was a control condition (phase 1) in which the boy received, at home, a stimulation focused on the visuospatial domain. Subsequently, there were three experimental training phases, in which stimulation in the verbal domain was first focused on attention and inhibition (phase 2a), then on switching and simple working memory tasks (phase 2b), then on complex working memory tasks (phase 3). A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered before and after each training phase and seven months after the conclusion of the intervention. The main finding was that Davide changed from being incapable of addressing the dual task request of the listening span test in the initial assessment to performing close to the normal limits of a thirteen-year-old boy in the follow-up assessment with this test, when he was fifteen years old.

This article addresses how to enhance metaphor and metonymy comprehension in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD), who are known to have difficulties with figurative language. After considering some major issues on typical development and in HF-ASD, and some studies on treatment in this specific domain, the authors describe an intervention methodology that can be used in schools and clinics. This methodology is based on two main points: 1) the explicit teaching of strategies for understanding metaphors and 2) activities for enhancing the abstraction of semantic features in metaphors and metonymies. The authors show how these devices can make complex processes such as figurative language comprehension more concrete for children with HF-ASD.

This study analyses the case of a gifted child (9;6 year) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who had a particularly high verbal IQ (146) and a specific cognitive, linguistic, and metalinguistic profile. A description of some salient behavioral characteristics of the child is provided. A metalinguistic ability test assessing metagrammatical, metasemantic, and metaphonological abilities and a metaphor comprehension test were administered. Both tests place high value on justifications of responses, which permits investigators to grasp different levels of metalinguistic awareness. The child gave poor metalinguistic responses in subtests assessing metasemantic abilities, contrary to subtests assessing metagrammatical and metaphonological abilities. These discrepant results are interpreted in terms of this child’s specific difficulty with ‘open’ linguistic systems, such as semantics, in spite of his high ‘closed’ language capabilities. The discussion highlights the importance of assessing the meta-level of the verbal competencies of gifted children with ASD.

The article presents a study on metalinguistic, cognitive and metacognitive abilities in university students. A sample of 353 students was recruited; 178 of which from scientific and 175 from humanistic Faculties, with gender balance (M = 178; F = 175) whose age range was between 20 and 25 years old. They were administered a metalinguistic ability test that assesses metalinguistic awareness at implicit and explicit levels (L and ML scores) and the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices 38 (SPM38). In addition to the usual nonverbal administration of the matrices, candidates were asked to justify in written form the reasons for the solution indicated in each item. Three scores were considered for the SPM38: the ordinary score based on the number of correct nonverbal solutions (O.S.), a 7-point scale for assessing the argumentation of the correct solutions (C.ARG.S.) and a 6-point scale for assessing the argumentation of the incorrect solutions (I.ARG.S.). Significant gender and curriculum effects were found, with males and scientific students dominating at the nonverbal level while females and humanistic students dominated in the argumentative abilities related to the matrices and in all the scores of the metalinguistic test. A number of significant correlations were found between all the metalinguistic, cognitive and metacognitive abilities considered, with a prominent role of the metalinguistic abilities at the explicit level (ML score) that show a clear argumentative structure very similar to the C.ARG.S. argumentations in the matrices test.

The aim of the present article is to critically review the experimental research in the domain of metaphor and metonymy competencies in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children. After providing some basic definitions of metaphor and metonymy, we consider some major points emerging from studies on metaphorical and metonymical competencies in typical child development. Then, we review a number of emblematic studies concerning the relationship between autism and metaphor and metonymy, starting from the pioneering clinical studies by Kanner and Asperger in the 1940s. We also critically analyze experimental research on these same topics starting from the 1990s. The discussion highlights some major points emerging from recent experimental research and outlines possible perspectives for future research.

This study investigated metaphor comprehension in a group of 24 Italian high-functioning ASD children (mean age: 8.5 y.). Children were administered a test that was composed of ‘sensorial metaphors’, which are understood by normally developing preschoolers, that the children had to verbally explain. Two normally developing control groups, which were composed of 5- and 6-year olds, were recruited as well, as the highest age for this test is 6 years. A one-way ANOVA applied to the four scores from the test showed a partial delay in the ASD group with respect to the 6-year-old control group, but not with respect to the 5-year-old control group. The ASD group showed some capabilities in metaphor processing; however, there were also some atypical behaviors that suggest that ASD children process metaphorical stimuli in a particular way.