Using Story-Based Thinking Maps to Enhance Metaphor Comprehension Skills in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
A simple story-plus-map routine took three young autistic children from guessing to perfect on metaphor tasks in under two weeks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three autistic children aged 5 to 8 years worked one-on-one with a tutor. Each session used a short story and a simple thinking map that showed how a metaphor links two ideas.
The team tracked how well each child picked the right meaning of sentences like "her voice was velvet." They started teaching only after each child showed stable low scores.
What they found
Every child hit 100% accuracy on both physical and feeling metaphors after only a few lessons. Gains stayed high two weeks later and carried over to new stories.
How this fits with other research
Amodeo et al. (2025) ran a 16-week Theory-of-Mind story program and saw only weak gains that never reached daily life. The new maps look stronger, likely because they pair each metaphor with a clear visual instead of just talking about it.
McCarron et al. (2002) first showed that cartoon thought-bubbles can teach false-belief. Thinking maps build on that idea: use a simple picture to make an abstract idea stick.
Ahlborn et al. (2008) also used a multiple-baseline design and got big gains with Social Thinking lessons. Both studies show that well-structured social language lessons can move scores fast when you show the rule in a picture.
Why it matters
If a client struggles with phrases like "break the ice" or "heavy heart," sketch a quick two-box map during story time. Link the picture to the feeling and the object. You may see mastery in days, not months.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: Metaphor comprehension is a critical yet challenging skill for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), particularly in understanding psychological related metaphors. This study aims to address this gap by employing story-based thinking maps intervention to enhance comprehension of both physical and psychological related metaphors in children with ASD. METHOD: Three children with ASD (aged 5-8) participated in this study. A concurrent multiple-probe design across two behaviors (physical and psychological related metaphors) and three participants was used, with baseline, intervention, follow-up, and generalization phases. Intervention involved identifying metaphor elements, shared features, and meanings. RESULTS: The results indicated that all participants demonstrated low accuracy during the baseline phase but exhibited similar patterns of improvement during the intervention phase and achieved 100% accuracy. High accuracy rates were maintained during the follow-up and generalization phases. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that the story-based thinking maps intervention is effective in enhancing metaphor comprehension skills in children with ASD. This study provides valuable insights for designing interventions targeting metaphor comprehension in this population.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0017.2006.00284.x