Bilingualism Effects in Metaphor and Simile Comprehension and Production in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder / Maria ANDREOU in Autism Research, 18-3 (March 2025)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 18-3 (March 2025) . - p.632-647 Titre : Bilingualism Effects in Metaphor and Simile Comprehension and Production in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Stella LAMPRI, Auteur ; Theodoros MARINIS, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.632-647 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorder  bilingualism  error analysis  executive functions  figurative language  metaphor comprehension  metaphor production  predicate metaphors  simile comprehension  simile production Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : ABSTRACT Figurative language, including metaphors and similes, is a crucial component of communication; yet, it presents significant challenges for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A critical gap in existing research is the impact of bilingualism on the ability of children with ASD to understand and produce non-literal speech. This study addresses this gap by examining the comprehension and production of metaphors and similes in monolingual and bilingual Greek-speaking children with high-functioning ASD. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate these abilities in bilingual children with ASD. Thirty-three monolingual and 18 bilingual children participated in tasks designed to assess comprehension, production, and error patterns for metaphors and similes. The study has also investigated the roles of non-verbal intelligence, language skills (expressive vocabulary), and executive functions (working memory) in the children's performance in the metaphor and simile tasks. Results showed that the two groups did not differ in metaphor comprehension; however, bilingual autistic children with higher non-verbal intelligence appeared to have superior performance in metaphor comprehension compared to their bilingual peers with lower non-verbal intelligence. The bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers in metaphor production, likely due to their higher non-verbal intelligence ability, despite the fact that the bilingual group had lower expressive vocabulary scores than the monolingual children. Simile comprehension, on the other hand, favored monolingual children, while no significant group differences were observed in simile production. Regarding errors, both groups exhibited similar error patterns, with literal interpretations being the dominant error type across both groups, suggesting that pragmatic language difficulty is a hallmark feature in ASD. The findings challenge the misconception that bilingualism hinders language development in children with ASD and highlight its potential to provide benefits in the realm of non-literal language processing. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70009 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=550 [article] Bilingualism Effects in Metaphor and Simile Comprehension and Production in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder [texte imprimé] / Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Stella LAMPRI, Auteur ; Theodoros MARINIS, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur . - p.632-647. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 18-3 (March 2025) . - p.632-647 Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorder  bilingualism  error analysis  executive functions  figurative language  metaphor comprehension  metaphor production  predicate metaphors  simile comprehension  simile production Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : ABSTRACT Figurative language, including metaphors and similes, is a crucial component of communication; yet, it presents significant challenges for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A critical gap in existing research is the impact of bilingualism on the ability of children with ASD to understand and produce non-literal speech. This study addresses this gap by examining the comprehension and production of metaphors and similes in monolingual and bilingual Greek-speaking children with high-functioning ASD. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate these abilities in bilingual children with ASD. Thirty-three monolingual and 18 bilingual children participated in tasks designed to assess comprehension, production, and error patterns for metaphors and similes. The study has also investigated the roles of non-verbal intelligence, language skills (expressive vocabulary), and executive functions (working memory) in the children's performance in the metaphor and simile tasks. Results showed that the two groups did not differ in metaphor comprehension; however, bilingual autistic children with higher non-verbal intelligence appeared to have superior performance in metaphor comprehension compared to their bilingual peers with lower non-verbal intelligence. The bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers in metaphor production, likely due to their higher non-verbal intelligence ability, despite the fact that the bilingual group had lower expressive vocabulary scores than the monolingual children. Simile comprehension, on the other hand, favored monolingual children, while no significant group differences were observed in simile production. Regarding errors, both groups exhibited similar error patterns, with literal interpretations being the dominant error type across both groups, suggesting that pragmatic language difficulty is a hallmark feature in ASD. The findings challenge the misconception that bilingualism hinders language development in children with ASD and highlight its potential to provide benefits in the realm of non-literal language processing. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70009 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=550

Bilingualism effects in pronoun comprehension: Evidence from children with autism / Vasileia SKRIMPA in Autism Research, 15-2 (February 2022)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 15-2 (February 2022) . - p.270-283 Titre : Bilingualism effects in pronoun comprehension: Evidence from children with autism Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Vasileia SKRIMPA, Auteur ; Vasilina SPANOU, Auteur ; Christiane BONGARTZ, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur ; Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Despina PAPADOPOULOU, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.270-283 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorder  bilingualism  language deficits  pronoun resolution Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : The prevalence of autism worldwide has risen steadily in the last two decades, while bilingualism is also becoming increasingly prevalent in today's rapidly globalizing world. The current study aimed to investigate bilingualism effects in the pronoun resolution skills of children with autism in comparison to age-matched monolingual children with autism, as well as monolingual and bilingual children of typical development (Ν = 20 participants per group). Results showed that autistic children had general difficulty anchoring ambiguous pronouns to entities that were linguistically expressed in discourse, yet, the bilingual children with autism were more sensitive to the topicality of the entities in syntactic subject position and more prone to identify them as suitable referents of ambiguous null pronouns as compared to their monolingual peers. The findings suggest that bilingualism is not detrimental to autistic children's pronoun resolution skills. The current study aimed at determining how bilingualism influences ambiguous pronoun comprehension in children with autism as compared to bilingual and monolingual children of typical development. The findings show that bilingualism was not detrimental to the autistic children's pronoun resolution skills, further suggesting that having acquired more than one language does not exacerbate autistic children's deficits in the comprehension of pronouns. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2634 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=450 [article] Bilingualism effects in pronoun comprehension: Evidence from children with autism [texte imprimé] / Vasileia SKRIMPA, Auteur ; Vasilina SPANOU, Auteur ; Christiane BONGARTZ, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur ; Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Despina PAPADOPOULOU, Auteur . - p.270-283. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 15-2 (February 2022) . - p.270-283 Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorder  bilingualism  language deficits  pronoun resolution Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : The prevalence of autism worldwide has risen steadily in the last two decades, while bilingualism is also becoming increasingly prevalent in today's rapidly globalizing world. The current study aimed to investigate bilingualism effects in the pronoun resolution skills of children with autism in comparison to age-matched monolingual children with autism, as well as monolingual and bilingual children of typical development (Ν = 20 participants per group). Results showed that autistic children had general difficulty anchoring ambiguous pronouns to entities that were linguistically expressed in discourse, yet, the bilingual children with autism were more sensitive to the topicality of the entities in syntactic subject position and more prone to identify them as suitable referents of ambiguous null pronouns as compared to their monolingual peers. The findings suggest that bilingualism is not detrimental to autistic children's pronoun resolution skills. The current study aimed at determining how bilingualism influences ambiguous pronoun comprehension in children with autism as compared to bilingual and monolingual children of typical development. The findings show that bilingualism was not detrimental to the autistic children's pronoun resolution skills, further suggesting that having acquired more than one language does not exacerbate autistic children's deficits in the comprehension of pronouns. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2634 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=450

Cognitive flexibility in autism: Evidence from young autistic children / Maria ANDREOU in Autism Research, 15-12 (December 2022)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 15-12 (December 2022) . - p.2296-2309 Titre : Cognitive flexibility in autism: Evidence from young autistic children Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Kostas KONSTANTOPOULOS, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.2296-2309 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Child  Humans  Autistic Disorder/complications  Autism Spectrum Disorder/complications  Semantics  Language  Cognition  autism  children's color trails test  cognitive flexibility  fluency Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : We examined the cognitive flexibility performance of young autistic children and a group of neurotypical peers. Thirty-six autistic children (72-83 months) and 200 age-matched typically-developing children were assessed on the Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT), a semantic and a phonemic verbal fluency task. The results showed that the autistic children performed worse than their neurotypical peers in the switching component of the CCTT. In the fluency tests, the autistic group generated overall fewer word items than their neurotypical peers, however, their poorer performance was driven by specific linguistic stimuli in the fluency tasks. The findings suggest that cognitive flexibility for the autistic children was affected in the nonverbal CCTT only, while poor performance in semantic and phonemic fluency seemed to be inherent to the language properties of the verbal fluency tasks. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2828 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=488 [article] Cognitive flexibility in autism: Evidence from young autistic children [texte imprimé] / Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Kostas KONSTANTOPOULOS, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur . - p.2296-2309. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 15-12 (December 2022) . - p.2296-2309 Mots-clés : Child  Humans  Autistic Disorder/complications  Autism Spectrum Disorder/complications  Semantics  Language  Cognition  autism  children's color trails test  cognitive flexibility  fluency Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : We examined the cognitive flexibility performance of young autistic children and a group of neurotypical peers. Thirty-six autistic children (72-83 months) and 200 age-matched typically-developing children were assessed on the Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT), a semantic and a phonemic verbal fluency task. The results showed that the autistic children performed worse than their neurotypical peers in the switching component of the CCTT. In the fluency tests, the autistic group generated overall fewer word items than their neurotypical peers, however, their poorer performance was driven by specific linguistic stimuli in the fluency tasks. The findings suggest that cognitive flexibility for the autistic children was affected in the nonverbal CCTT only, while poor performance in semantic and phonemic fluency seemed to be inherent to the language properties of the verbal fluency tasks. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2828 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=488

Enhancing theory of mind through language and executive function training: Evidence from bilingual and monolingual autistic children / Maria ANDREOU in Research in Autism, 133 (May 2026)  

Public ISBD [article]  inResearch in Autism > 133 (May 2026) . - p.202898 Titre : Enhancing theory of mind through language and executive function training: Evidence from bilingual and monolingual autistic children Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Konstantina Sonia ANTONIOU, Auteur ; Vasileia SKRIMPA, Auteur ; Theodoros MARINIS, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.202898 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Autism Spectrum Disorder  Bilingualism  Theory of Mind  Executive Function Training  Language Training Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : The current study has investigated whether targeted language or executive function (EF) training can enhance Theory of Mind (ToM) in autistic children, and whether bilingualism would modulate training effects on the autistic children’s ToM performance. Forty autistic children (20 monolingual, 20 bilingual) were randomly assigned to language- or EF-based training groups, while an additional monolingual group received no training. Verbal and non-verbal ToM were assessed pre- and post-training. Both group and case-series analyses were conducted. At the group level, monolingual autistic children did not demonstrate significant pre–post improvements in either ToM modality, regardless of training type. In contrast, pre- to post-training comparisons in the bilingual autistic groups demonstrated significant verbal and non-verbal ToM gains following both language and EF training. No baseline differences were observed across groups in non-verbal IQ, vocabulary, syntactic comprehension, or working memory. Individual-level analyses further showed improvements primarily after language training, with heterogeneous improvements in verbal and non-verbal ToM across the bilingual autistic cases. The overall findings suggest that bilingual experience may strengthen improvement for both verbal and non-verbal ToM functions, further supporting the hypothesis that improvement in domain-specific functions, like language or EF, may lead to improvement in socio-cognitive functions as well. While preliminary, these results highlight the importance of including bilingual autistic populations in language and EF training research, and contribute to ongoing debates regarding the relations between language, EF and ToM in autism. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2026.202898 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=585 [article] Enhancing theory of mind through language and executive function training: Evidence from bilingual and monolingual autistic children [texte imprimé] / Maria ANDREOU, Auteur ; Konstantina Sonia ANTONIOU, Auteur ; Vasileia SKRIMPA, Auteur ; Theodoros MARINIS, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur . - p.202898. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Research in Autism > 133 (May 2026) . - p.202898 Mots-clés : Autism Spectrum Disorder  Bilingualism  Theory of Mind  Executive Function Training  Language Training Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : The current study has investigated whether targeted language or executive function (EF) training can enhance Theory of Mind (ToM) in autistic children, and whether bilingualism would modulate training effects on the autistic children’s ToM performance. Forty autistic children (20 monolingual, 20 bilingual) were randomly assigned to language- or EF-based training groups, while an additional monolingual group received no training. Verbal and non-verbal ToM were assessed pre- and post-training. Both group and case-series analyses were conducted. At the group level, monolingual autistic children did not demonstrate significant pre–post improvements in either ToM modality, regardless of training type. In contrast, pre- to post-training comparisons in the bilingual autistic groups demonstrated significant verbal and non-verbal ToM gains following both language and EF training. No baseline differences were observed across groups in non-verbal IQ, vocabulary, syntactic comprehension, or working memory. Individual-level analyses further showed improvements primarily after language training, with heterogeneous improvements in verbal and non-verbal ToM across the bilingual autistic cases. The overall findings suggest that bilingual experience may strengthen improvement for both verbal and non-verbal ToM functions, further supporting the hypothesis that improvement in domain-specific functions, like language or EF, may lead to improvement in socio-cognitive functions as well. While preliminary, these results highlight the importance of including bilingual autistic populations in language and EF training research, and contribute to ongoing debates regarding the relations between language, EF and ToM in autism. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2026.202898 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=585

Figurative language processing in autism spectrum disorders: A review / Stella LAMPRI in Autism Research, 17-4 (April 2024)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 17-4 (April 2024) . - p.674-689 Titre : Figurative language processing in autism spectrum disorders: A review Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Stella LAMPRI, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur ; Theodoros MARINIS, Auteur ; Maria ANDREOU, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.674-689 Langues : Anglais (eng) Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Abstract Impairments in the broader domain of pragmatics are considered to be a defining feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A challenging aspect of pragmatic competence is the ability to process nonliteral language. Interestingly, previous studies in figurative language comprehension in ASD have demonstrated conflicting results regarding participants' performance. The main scientific debate focuses on the underlying skills which facilitate processing of nonliteral speech in ASD. Namely, Theory of Mind (ToM), language abilities and Executive functions (EFs) are regarded as factors affecting autistic individuals' performance. This review addresses figurative language comprehension in ASD in light of the above three interpretive accounts. We reviewed data from recent studies in this field concluding that autistic children indeed encounter systematic difficulties in the processing of non-literal language. Moreover, only ToM and verbal skills were found to correlate the most with figurative language comprehension in ASD. Notably, we found that differences related to research methodology and tasks' properties may have led to discrepancies between studies' results. Finally, we argue that future studies should encompass in their experimental design figurative comprehension tasks with minimal linguistic demands and also measures of ToM, verbal ability and EFs in order to shed more light in the independent contribution of those skills to the processing of nonliteral language in ASD. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3069 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=526 [article] Figurative language processing in autism spectrum disorders: A review [texte imprimé] / Stella LAMPRI, Auteur ; Eleni PERISTERI, Auteur ; Theodoros MARINIS, Auteur ; Maria ANDREOU, Auteur . - p.674-689. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 17-4 (April 2024) . - p.674-689 Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Abstract Impairments in the broader domain of pragmatics are considered to be a defining feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). A challenging aspect of pragmatic competence is the ability to process nonliteral language. Interestingly, previous studies in figurative language comprehension in ASD have demonstrated conflicting results regarding participants' performance. The main scientific debate focuses on the underlying skills which facilitate processing of nonliteral speech in ASD. Namely, Theory of Mind (ToM), language abilities and Executive functions (EFs) are regarded as factors affecting autistic individuals' performance. This review addresses figurative language comprehension in ASD in light of the above three interpretive accounts. We reviewed data from recent studies in this field concluding that autistic children indeed encounter systematic difficulties in the processing of non-literal language. Moreover, only ToM and verbal skills were found to correlate the most with figurative language comprehension in ASD. Notably, we found that differences related to research methodology and tasks' properties may have led to discrepancies between studies' results. Finally, we argue that future studies should encompass in their experimental design figurative comprehension tasks with minimal linguistic demands and also measures of ToM, verbal ability and EFs in order to shed more light in the independent contribution of those skills to the processing of nonliteral language in ASD. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3069 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=526

Integrating artificial intelligence and natural language processing to investigate lexical errors in autistic preschoolers / Maria ANDREOU in Research in Autism, 130 (February 2026)  

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Intellectual development in young children with autism spectrum disorders: A longitudinal study / Eleni PERISTERI in Autism Research, 17-3 (March 2024)  

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Metaphor comprehension and production in verbally able children with Autism Spectrum Disorder / Stella LAMPRI in Autism Research, 17-11 (November 2024)  

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