The goal of the research was to examine executive functioning and figurative language comprehension among students with learning disabilities as compared to students without learning disabilities. As part of the research, we examined 20 students with learning disabilities and 21 students with no learning disabilities, both groups of students attend 7 th and 8 th grade (ages 12-13). The participants were selected using: Glantz Abstract Verbal Thinking Test of cognitive skills (2010), reading words with and without visual punctuation(Note 1) as well as a set of dummy words (Hadad, 2010). The level of executive functioning was evaluated using three types of assessment tools: a multiple meaning word questionnaire, semantic fluency and phonetic fluency tests. The level of figurative speech was evaluated using four assessment tools: idioms, colloquial expression, metaphor questionnaire and a pictorial metaphor test. The development of language proficiency along with enhanced use of aural and visual metaphors among children with learning disabilities, may contribute to improving the ability to plan, reinforce flexibility, bolster working memory and establish self monitor fluency; this in turn, builds up creative and abstract thinking as well as the ability to understand and produce a metaphor. These findings and conclusions have implications on a variety of pedagogical experiences including the reduction in school dropout rate, advancement of student achievements thereby bolstering academic self esteem.
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