Maria Antonietta Pinto

Sapienza University of Rome | la sapienza · Department of Developmental and Social Psychology

The study of language abilities offers privileged insights to access the multifaceted world of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD, henceforth), showing how particular aspects of language may be handled differently as a function of typical neuropsychological features of specific disorders [...]

A presente obra é uma versão melhorada, atualizada, e adaptada do TCM júnior (TCM junior. Test di comprensione delle metafore. Scuola dell'infanzia e scuola primaria, de 2008) –, dos autores Maria Antonietta Pinto, Sergio Melogno e Paolo Iliceto. Quanto ao recurso, trata-se de uma ferramenta de compreensão de metáforas, de avaliação/análise, com a...

A presente obra é uma versão melhorada e adaptada do TCM (TCM- Test di comprensione delle metafore, Scuola elementare e scuola media - Carocci Editore, de 2006) – dos autores Maria Antonietta Pinto, Sergio Melogno e Paolo Iliceto. Quanto ao recurso, trata-se de uma ferramenta de compreensão de metáforas, de avaliação/análise e intervenção, com a ad...

This study was based on an analysis of some of the qualitative aspects underlying the findings of previous research into the metalinguistic abilities in 160 Italian-speaking, typically developing children aged from 5 to 7 years. This previous research had used six metalinguistic tasks, a nonverbal intelligence test, and two lexical- and grammar-com...

Nous décrivons une intervention psycho-éducative visant à promouvoir une attitude de résilience chez des enfants réfugiés de guerre. Nous inspirant de la littérature la plus récente sur la résilience, qui conçoit cette notion comme un processus dynamique et constructif basé sur des stratégies de coping , nous avons mis en place une intervention en...

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been shown to have social cognitive issues .The purpose of this clinical case study was to describe the social cognition examination and therapy of a gifted child, SC (9 years old), who had ASD and a very high verbal IQ (146). The objectives of the treatment were to improve the child's capability of...

This article reviews the literature reporting on the trainings implemented with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability to enhance their capability to cope with metaphor comprehension. The studies in this review can be classified into two main strands of thought, behavioral-analytic and psycholinguistic, respect...

The object of this study is the development of metalinguistic abilities in an age range—5 to 7 years—where an important turn takes place in education, namely the transition between kindergarten and primary school. Based on the literature starting from the 70’s of the last century, embryonic forms of awareness of how language variation can be manipu...

In this case report, we studied Theory of Mind (ToM) and figurative language comprehension in a 7.2-year-old child, conventionally named RJ, with isolated and complete agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC), a rare malformation due to the absence of the corpus callosum, the major tract connecting the two brain hemispheres. To study ToM, which is the...

This study explores novel metaphor comprehension in a 7.2-year-old child (conventionally called RJ) with complete and isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC). RJ’s cognitive level was adequate for his age as well as most of his linguistic competencies. The child’s performance was compared to typically developing (TD) controls on a test asses...

In this paper, we describe an intervention implemented to assist a 13.2-year-old boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder, G, without intellectual disability, aimed at improving his ability to compose persuasive texts. There was an initial assessment (baseline), an intermediate assessment after two weeks, a six-session intervention phase, and a post-inter...

Les auteurs analysent le cas d’un enfant de 10 ans 3 mois, conventionnelement appelé F, avec trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA), sans déficience intellectuelle. F possédait des habiletés langagières de base adéquates en comprehension (vocabulaire et grammaire) et en production, mais des carences dans l’utilisation pragmatique du langage, dans le...

In this study we explored metaphor and idiom competencies in two clinical populations, children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and children with Klinefelter syndrome (KS), (age range: 9–12), compared to typically developing (TD) children of the same age. These three groups were tested with two multiple-choice tests assessing idiom comprehens...

Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a genetic anomaly involving the presence of one or more supernumerary X chromosomes in male individuals. In the cognitive profile of these individuals, strengths are found in nonverbal abilities, whereas weaknesses are observed in executive function, language, and academic performance. Our study is based on a comparison...

Literature on children with Klinefelter Syndrome (KS) points to general linguistic difficulties in both comprehension and production among other cognitive functions, and in the majority of cases, these coexist with an intellectual level within the norms. In these conditions, children having language delay generally engage in language therapy and ar...

Apresentamos o THAM-1, teste de avaliação das habilidades ou capacidades metalinguísticas, para crianças dos 4 aos 6 anos. O presente teste faz parte de um conjunto de estratégias de avaliação das habilidades metalinguísticas em Português Europeu que abrangem todas as faixas etárias: THAM-1, o THAM-2, para as crianças dos 9 aos 14 anos e o THAM-3,...

Apresentamos uma série de exercícios destinados a desenvolver habilidades ou capacidades metalinguísticas aplicadas a textos ou problemas matemáticos. São uma série de problemas de matemática normalmente utilizados no final do 1º ciclo, podendo ser utilizados, mesmo, em outros ciclos de ensino. Os exercícios compartilham importantes pontos comuns e...

This paper reports on two studies on metalinguistic development in bilingual Italian–English and Italian–French children, with the use of the same metalinguistic test in different linguistic versions. The first study, conducted in preschool and primary-level classes in London, involved 118 four- and five-year old children, 64 Italian–English biling...

Recent research into difficulties in figurative language in children with ASD highlighted that it is possible to devise training interventions to overcome these difficulties by teaching specific strategies. This study describes how children with ASD can improve their capability to explain metaphors with a treatment. Two types of metaphors, in the "...

Until the first decade of the current millennium, the literature on metaphor comprehension highlighted typical difficulties in children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). More recently, some scholars have devised special programs for enhancing the capability of understanding metaphors in these children. This article presents a ca...

Social cognition difficulties are well documented in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This clinical case study reports on social cognition assessment and treatment of a gifted child, SC (9 years), with ASD and an extraordinarily high verbal IQ (146). The assessment of theory of mind, emotion recognition and pragmatic abilities showed s...

Metalinguistic awareness is a crucial component of school achievement. To measure the development level of metalinguistic awareness, and hence predict success, the Metalinguistic Awareness Tests (MAT) by Pinto and her colleagues are considered the most comprehensive instruments (Jessner, 2006). In addition, they are available for three age groups a...

Pretendemos apresentar recursos para avaliacao e intervencao ao nivel da consciencia metalinguistica (Metalinguistic Awareness), previstos para tres faixas etarias distintas e especificas: criancas, adolescentes e adultos. Ensaiamos a versao em lingua portuguesa dos MAT’s (Testes de capacidade metalinguistica – Metalinguistic Ability Tests), MAT1,...

La conscience métalinguistique : théorie, développement et instruments de mesure explique l’importance des habiletés métalinguistiques tant aux niveaux scolaire et professionnel qu’au niveau personnel, et propose des instruments de mesure pour déterminer le niveau de développement de ces habiletés pour, éventuellement, le bonifier s’il y a lieu. Tr...

Metalinguistic awareness has recently been acknowledged by the European Commission (Lifelong Learning Programme) as a significant factor in successful learning. A grant has been given to the Metalinguistic Awereness Tests in European Languages (MATEL) project in order to validate French and Spanish Metalinguistic awareness tests and to develop a Ge...

Background. Adolescence represents a critical period for brain development, addressed by neurodevelopmental models to frontal, subcortical-limbic, and striatal activation, a pattern associated with rise of impulsivity and deficits in inhibitory control. The present study aimed at studying the association between self-report measures of impulsivity...

Background. Adolescence represents a critical period for brain development, addressed by neurodevelopmental models to frontal, subcortical-limbic, and striatal activation, a pattern associated with rise of impulsivity and deficits in inhibitory control. The present study aimed at studying the association between self-report measures of impulsivity...

This study analyses the case of a gifted child (9;6 year) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who had a particularly high verbal IQ (146) and a specific cognitive, linguistic, and metalinguistic profile. A description of some salient behavioral characteristics of the child is provided. A metalinguistic ability test assessing metagrammatical, metase...

EnglishThe authors describe the case of a child who was examined when he was 9 years 2 months, after having received a diagnosis of Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) when he was 4 years 10 months. The authors focus on the child's solitary and imagination activities, particularly his imaginary companion and his parac...

Résumé Les auteurs analysent le cas d’un enfant examiné à 9 ans 2 mois, à la suite d’un diagnostic de troubles envahissants du développement non spécifiés (TED-NS) effectué à l’âge de 4 ans 10 mois, en considérant son profil cognitif, langagier et de cognition sociale, et la nature de ses conduites solitaires et d’imagination, particulièrement cell...

The aim of the present article is to critically review the experimental research in the domain of metaphor and metonymy competencies in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children. After providing some basic definitions of metaphor and metonymy, we consider some major points emerging from studies on metaphorical and metonymical competencies in typical...

This article presents case studies on metaphor comprehension in two boys with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorder, aged 9;1 (9 years, 1 month) and 8;11. The participants were assessed twice, before and after an intervention program aimed at improving their social skills. The focus of the article is on the specific patterns exhibited by each...

This study investigated metaphor comprehension in a group of 24 Italian high-functioning ASD children (mean age: 8.5 y.). Children were administered a test that was composed of ‘sensorial metaphors’, which are understood by normally developing preschoolers, that the children had to verbally explain. Two normally developing control groups, which wer...

This article presents a test for assessing metaphor comprehension (MCT) in explicit linguistic form for subjects aged 9- to 14 years-old, i.e. in a transitional age where significant qualitative changes appear for this type of ability. Metaphor is viewed as a form of semantic conflict induced by the anomalous combination of the conventional meaning...

This article deals with the phenomenon of overregularization in a language already extremely regular, i.e. Esperanto, in children who are learning it as their mother tongue together with one or two other national languages. It consists of an analysis of the diaries kept by Esperanto-speaking parents, tracing the development of five children who wer...

Due gruppi di alunni di una scuola media italiana, comparabili tra loro per molti aspetti, hanno preso parte ad un esperimento sugli effetti dell'apprendimento dell'esperanto relativamente alle loro abilità metalinguistiche. Il gruppo che ha seguito un corso di esperanto per un intero anno scolastico ha avuto dei risultati migliori in test di abili...

Discusses the development, administration, and evaluation of the Test of Metalinguistic Ability (TAM). Developed at the University of Rome, the TAM consists of 96 items divided into 6 parts: comprehension, synonyms, acceptability, ambiguity, grammatical function, and phonemic segmentation. (CFM)