Idioms processing in school-aged children. Preliminary findings on the role of inferential skills
Roberto Padovani, Paola Zavattiero, Annalisa Pelosi, Cristina Cacciari, Maria Chiara Levorato, Paola Corradini, Eleonora Pizzocaro, Roberta Signoretto, Claudia Sessa
The computation of non-literal language is a later developing skill of language acquisition and is often weak in neurodevelopmental disorders. In this study we investigated the ability to process idiomatic expressions (e.g., «break the ice») in children aged 6-10 with two tasks tapping on production (participants were asked to orally explain the meaning of an idiom) and comprehension (to choose which of four pictures corresponded to the meaning of an auditory presented story containing an idiom). One-hundred and sixty typically developing children, equally divided by gender and age, participated in the study. The aim was to obtain a set of experimental materials to be used to test idiom acquisition. The results show a significant improvement in idiomatic processing for both the production and comprehension tasks from 6 to 9 years of age. A simultaneous reduction of the tendency to the literal interpretation of idioms occurred. Overall, these results suggest that the tasks can be successfully used for assessing idiom comprehension and inferential skills in children. The possible clinical application of these preliminary findings is discussed.
Keywords
Figurative competence, development of figurative language, idioms, inferential skill.
