Children's comprehension of metaphoric language

The aim of the present study was to evaluate children's metaphor comprehension as an important aspect of language development and its importance for pedagogical psychology. A total of 124 children (2nd, 3rd and 4th grade) were investigated with respect to metaphor comprehension by 12 proverbial phrases. Verbal and nonverbal intellectual ability, the cognitive development and expressive and receptive language capacities were evaluated by common used standardized tests. Analyses of covariances with the independent variable "age" and the covariates "verbal" and "nonverbal intellectual ability", "cognitive development" and "familiarity of the proverbial phrases" revealed significant effects of age and verbal intellectual ability. No significant influences with respect to nonverbal intellectual ability, familiarity of the proverbial phrases and cognitive development of Piaget were found. Regarding the language capacities multiple regression analyses yielded significant influences of comprehension of word meaning on metaphor comprehension.