Interpretation of Metaphors in the Preschool Age: Interrelation with Emotional and Cognitive Processes

The present article analyzes the process of interpreting a metaphor by pre-school children. The study involved 88 participants, attending a kindergarten in Moscow, Russia. The preschoolers were given a basic set of metaphors created by the authors as well as the NEPSY-II tests as a part of diagnostic work.The results show that metaphorical representation is an important form of the reflection of reality by children of pre-school age. Authors state that a metaphor acts as a tool of cognitive activity in the middle-age and senior-age groups of the pre-school age. The results demonstrate that there are two types of tasks that can be resolved using metaphorical representation: the first one is resolving the cognitive tasks, and the other is emotional regulation of cognitive activity. Also the dynamics of mastering metaphorical representation by pre-school age children has been determined.