Although metaphors are essential tools in everyday communication and educational settings, the literature lacks evidence of effective training tools to promote metaphor comprehension in typical development. Grounding in theoretical pragmatics, we developed a novel metaphor comprehension training (MetaCom) for school-age children that focuses on…

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the pragmatic abilities of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Several studies in the literature have previously reported communicative deficits in individuals with TBI, however such research has focused principally on communicative deficits in general, without providing an…

This paper deals with the features and design of explanations in public physics lectures. It presents the findings from a comparative study of three exemplary public physics lectures, given by practicing physicists who are acknowledged as excellent public lecturers. The study uses three different perspectives: the lecture, the lecturer, and the…

Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience pragmatic language deficits, but it is not known whether these difficulties are primarily associated with high levels of inattention, hyperactivity, or both. We investigated pragmatic aspects of communication and language comprehension in relation to poor attention and/or…

This study of the communication effectiveness of 78 adolescents found that emotionally disturbed subjects were characterized by poorer communication and a lack of developmental change from early to late adolescence. Emotionally disturbed adolescents used less figurative information (form, size, color) than normal peers, but similar operative…