Characteristics of metaphor and reasoning comprehension ability of school-aged children with language development delay

Purpose: This study compares the degree of metaphor and reasoning comprehension development of three groups by evaluating the metaphor and reasoning comprehension of children with language development delay, children with matching language age, and children with matching chronological age.Methods: The subjects of the study were 15 children with delayed language development, 15 children with matching chronological age, and 15 children with matching language age. In order to find out their understanding of metaphors and reasoning, the test was conducted by presenting a stimulus plan with three stimulation pictures on one panel in which a subject selects a corresponding picture from the three pictures according to the inspector’s verbal instruction. The test consists of 70 questions, and the stimulus picture of metaphor and reasoning comprehension consists of figurative, dictionary, and inappropriate content.Results: Metaphor and reasoning comprehension was tested with the contents of metaphor ability based on substantive objects and metaphor ability based on abstract objects, with the following results. First, there was a significant difference between these groups as a result of comparing the development of metaphor and reasoning comprehension of children with delayed language development, children with matching language age, and children with matching chronological age. Second, there was no difference in metaphor and inference comprehension between the children’s group with language development delay and the children’s group with matching chronological age as they both showed high performance and their metaphor and inference comprehension was homogeneous. Third, as a result of comparing the metaphorical abilities of the children’s group with language development delay and the other children’s groups, it was found that an intervention program is needed to improve the metaphor and reasoning comprehension of children with language development delay. In particular, it is necessary to develop an arbitration method, which focuses on conceptualizing light abstract ideas, to improve their metaphor and reasoning comprehension.Conclusions: Based on this result, systematic intervention according to the degree of development of metaphor and reasoning ability is necessary to improve the social communication ability of children with delayed language development.