Bilingualism Effects in Metaphor and Simile Comprehension and Production in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Maria Andreou, Stella Lampri, Theodoros Marinis and 1 others
PMID 39985296WHAT IT FOUND
Bilingual autistic children produced more accurate metaphors than monolingual peers, linked to higher non-verbal intelligence.
Monolingual children understood similes better, linked to working memory. Literal errors were common in both groups, suggesting bilingualism does not worsen figurative language processing.
Key findings
01Bilingual autistic children outperformed monolingual peers in metaphor production, an advantage attributed to their higher non-verbal intelligence scores.
02Monolingual autistic children outperformed bilingual peers in simile comprehension, a performance linked to verbal working memory ability.
03Literal responses were the most frequent error type across both groups in metaphor and simile tasks, indicating no significant difference in error patterns between bilingual and monolingual children.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only included children without intellectual impairment, so findings may not apply to those with lower IQ scores or minimally verbal children. Executive function assessment was limited to verbal working memory, excluding other factors like cognitive flexibility or inhibition. Theory of mind was not assessed, despite its known role in figurative language processing. The study did not differentiate between types of bilingualism, such as simultaneous versus successive acquisition or balanced versus dominant proficiency.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation and the European Union–NextGeneration EU.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the bilingual advantage in metaphor production as evidence that bilingualism generally improves figurative language skills. The advantage was specific to metaphor production and linked to higher non-verbal intelligence, while monolingual children performed better in simile comprehension.