Devising Trainings to Enhance the Capabilities of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder to Cope With Metaphor: A Review of the Literature

This article reviews the literature reporting on trainings implemented with children Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability to enhance their capability cope metaphor comprehension. The studies in this review can be classified into two main strands of thought, behavioral-analytic and psycholinguistic, respectively. Beyond some basic similarities all these share attempt at training consider semantic features metaphors, mental pathways activated by those are based different cognitive linguistic processes. perspective teach meaning metaphors making an extensive use prompts: iconic, echoic, textual. In psycholinguistic perspective, instead, a wide range activities devised stimulate children's analytical abilities relations metaphors. A significant part jointly conducted between adult children, aimed promoting child's autonomy. Among most interesting theoretical challenges stemming from abovementioned studies, considers spontaneous creation original ASD when solicited understand metaphorical expressions. unexpected reaction highlights complexity relationships comprehension production ASD.