Idiom comprehension in French-speaking children and adolescents with Williams' syndrome.
Williams syndrome talkativeness hides poor idiom grasp—teach figurative meanings explicitly.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tested how well French-speaking children and teens with Williams syndrome understand idioms. They compared the group to kids who had the same verbal mental age but typical development.
The task was simple. Each child heard an idiom like "tomber dans les pommes" (to faint, literally "fall in the apples"). Then they picked the picture that showed the real meaning, not the silly literal one.
What they found
Williams syndrome scored far below their verbal mental-age matches. Even though they talked a lot, they missed the hidden meaning of everyday French idioms.
Older kids with WS did a bit better at explaining why idioms are tricky, but the gap stayed big. Chronological age did not fix the problem.
How this fits with other research
Lallier et al. (2014) followed the same French WS group into adulthood. Grammar judgments stayed stuck at seven-year-old level, showing a plateau. Idiom skills did not plateau—metapragmatic scores crept up—so pragmatics and grammar split in this syndrome.
Libero et al. (2016) tracked the same kids longitudinally. Expressive vocabulary raced ahead while sentence comprehension and pragmatics lagged. The new data fit that pattern: lots of words, poor figurative grasp.
Chandler et al. (1992) proved you can teach idioms to kids with ID using stories and picture choice. Their positive results give hope that direct teaching, not just wait-and-see, could help WS learners too.
Why it matters
When a chatty student with WS laughs at "break a leg," check if they really understand it. Map each idiom with a clear picture and a one-sentence meaning during session. Add them to the verbal behavior program like tacts or intraverbals. Re-test with new pictures every month to see if the skill sticks.
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Pick one common idiom, draw the literal and real meaning on index cards, and run five quick trials asking "What does it really mean?"
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study looks at idiom comprehension by French-speaking people with Williams' syndrome (WS) and metapragmatic knowledge is examined. Idiomatic expressions are a nonliteral form of language where there is a considerable difference between what is said (literal interpretation) and what is meant (idiomatic interpretation). WS is characterized by a relatively preserved formal language, social interest and poor conversational skills. Using this framework, the present study aims to explore the comprehension of idiomatic expressions by 20 participants with WS. Participants performed a story completion task (comprehension task), and a task of metapragmatic knowledge to justify their chosen answers. WS performances were compared to typically developing children with the same verbal mental age. The main results can be summarized as follows: (1) people with WS have difficulties to understand idioms; (2) WS group seems to perform partly as typically developing children for the acquisition of metapragmatic knowledge of linguistic convention: there is a progressive increase in metapragmatic knowledge of linguistic convention as age increased. Our results indicate a delay of acquisition in idiom comprehension in Williams' syndrome.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2009.12.011