Cover not available

Article In: Investigating Children’s Irony Comprehension: Current trends, challenges, and perspectives
Edited by Julia Fuchs-Kreiß
[Pragmatics & Cognition 33:1] 2026
► pp. 189–207

Investigating irony comprehension in children with ADHD

ORCiD logo with link | Leipzig University
 | Leipzig University
 | Leipzig University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
As a pragmatic competence, irony comprehension plays an important role in everyday communication and social relationships. Research to date has mainly focused on irony comprehension in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. More recently, pragmatic competences of children with ADHD have also received attention, although the focus has been more on global pragmatic competences. A few studies have examined irony comprehension in children with ADHD as a specific pragmatic sub-competence, but many questions remain unresolved. Therefore, the aim of this article is to map the state of research regarding irony comprehension in children with ADHD and, on this basis, to outline a research agenda for future studies investigating this important pragmatic sub-competence in children with ADHD.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Irony comprehension as a pragmatic competence in children with ADHD
    • 2.1Pragmatic competences in children with ADHD
    • 2.2Irony comprehension in children with ADHD
    • 2.3Strengths and weaknesses of previous research on irony comprehension in children with ADHD
  • 3.Future studies
    • Theoretical underpinnings of the notion of irony
    • Research design
    • Investigation of influencing factors
    • Differences within the group of children with ADHD
    • Comparison between children with ADHD and ASD
    • Well-matched samples with sufficient statistical power
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
References (48)
References
Banasik-Jemielniak, Natalia, Sandra Bosacki, Anna Mitrowska, Diana Wyrębek Walters, Katarzyna Wisiecka, Natalia Ewelina Copeland, Lara Wieland, Ljiljana Popovic, Jovana Piper & Aleksandra Siemieniuk. 2020. “Wonderful! We’ve just missed the bus.”: Parental use of irony and children’s irony comprehension. PLOS ONE 15(2). e0228538. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bernicot, Josie, Virginie Laval & Stéphanie Chaminaud. 2007. Nonliteral language forms in children: In what order are they acquired in pragmatics and metapragmatics? Journal of Pragmatics 39(12). 2115–2132. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bishop, Dorothy V. M. 1998. Development of the Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC): A method for assessing qualitative aspects of communicative impairment in children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 39(6). 879–891.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. The Children’s Communication Checklist — 2. London: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bryant, Gregory A. 2023. Vocal strategies in verbal irony. In Herbert L. Colston & Raymond W. Gibbs (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of irony and thought, 197–215. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caillies, Stéphanie, Vincine Bertot, Jacques Motte, Christine Raynaud & Michel Abely. 2014. Social cognition in ADHD: Irony understanding and recursive theory of mind. Research in Developmental Disabilities 35(11). 3191–3198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Capuozzo, Alessandra, Salvatore Rizzato, Giuseppe Grossi & Francesca Strappini. 2024. A systematic review on social cognition in ADHD: The role of language, theory of mind, and executive functions. Brain Sciences 14(11). 1117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carruthers, Sophie, Lauren Taylor, Hafiza Sadiq & Gail Tripp. 2022. The profile of pragmatic language impairments in children with ADHD: A systematic review. Development and Psychopathology 34(5). 1938–1960. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. & Richard J. Gerrig. 1984. On the pretense theory of irony. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 113(1). 121–126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colston, Herbert L. 2023. Irony as social work: Opposition, expectation violation, and contrast. In Herbert L. Colston & Raymond W. Gibbs (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of irony and thought, Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology), 81–95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cordier, Reinie, Sarah Wilkes-Gillan & Natalie Munro. 2021. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In Louise Cummings (ed.), Handbook of pragmatics language disorders: Complex and underserved populations, 283–309. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cummings, Louise. 2023. Introducing pragmatics: A clinical approach. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Falkum, Ingrid Lossius. 2019. Pragmatic development. Learning to use language to communicate. In Jessica Horst & Janne von Koss Torkildsen (eds.), International handbook of language acquisition, 234–260. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Faraone, Stephen V., Philip Asherson, Tobias Banaschewski, Joseph Biederman, Jan K. Buitelaar, Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga, Luis Augusto Rohde, Edmund J. S. Sonuga-Barke, Rosemary Tannock & Barbara Franke. 2015. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Nature Reviews Disease Primers 1(1). 1–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023b. Ironic, isn’t it!? A review on irony comprehension in children and adolescents with ASD. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 1081. 102248. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garmendia, Joana. 2024. A minimal account of irony. In Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Piotr Kałowski & Maria Zajączkowska (eds.), Studying verbal irony and sarcasm. Methodological perspectives from communication studies and beyond, 39–55. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Green, Benita C., Katherine A. Johnson & Lesley Bretherton. 2014. Pragmatic language difficulties in children with hyperactivity and attention problems: An integrated review. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 49(1). 15–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1957. Meaning. The Philosophical Review 66(3). 377–388. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1969. Utterer’s meaning and intentions. The Philosophical Review 78(2). 147–177. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Peter Cole & Jerry L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and semantics (vol. III: Speech acts), 41–58. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Yan. 2014. Pragmatics (2nd edn.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kessler, Paige B. & Toshikazu Ikuta. 2023. Pragmatic deficits in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders 27(8). 812–821. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Köder, Franziska & Ingrid Lossius Falkum. 2020. Children’s metonymy comprehension: Evidence from eye-tracking and picture selection. Journal of Pragmatics 1561. 191–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. Irony and perspective-taking in children: The roles of norm violations and tone of voice. Frontiers in Psychology 121. 624604. [URL].
Levinson, Stephen C. 2024. The dark matter of pragmatics: Known unknowns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ludlow, Amanda K., Eleanor Chadwick, Alice Morey, Rebecca Edwards & Roberto Gutierrez. 2017. An exploration of sarcasm detection in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders 701. 25–34. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthews, Danielle, Hannah Biney & Kirsten Abbot-Smith. 2018. Individual differences in children’s pragmatic ability: A review of associations with formal language, social cognition, and executive functions. Language Learning and Development 14(3). 186–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonald, Skye, Sharon Flanagan & Jennifer Rollins. 2002. The awareness of social inference test (TASIT): Manual. London: Pearson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mesquita, Maria Isabel Queirós Magno de. 2011. Avaliação das funções executivas em crianças: estudos psicométrico, desenvolvimental e neuropsicológico. Porto: Universidade Fernando Pessoa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milosavljevic, Ana. 2024. Experiments on the development of irony: Walking through a methodological maze. In Natalia Banasik-Jemielniak, Piotr Kałowski & Maria Zajączkowska (eds.), Studying verbal irony and sarcasm. Methodological perspectives from communication studies and beyond, 79–106. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pexman, Penny, Lorraine Reggin & Kate Lee. 2019. Addressing the challenge of verbal irony: getting serious about sarcasm training. Languages 4(2). 23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pfeifer, Valeria A. & Penny M. Pexman. 2024. When it pays to be insincere: On the benefits of verbal irony. Current Directions in Psychological Science 33(1). 43–50. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pinto Silva, Regina, Bárbara Mota, Linda Candeias, Victor Viana & Micaela Guardiano. 2024. Irony understanding in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A comparative analysis. Cureus 16(2). e53892. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polanczyk, Guilherme, Maurício Silva de Lima, Bernardo Lessa Horta, Joseph Biederman & Luis Augusto Rohde. 2007. The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: A systematic review and metaregression analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry 164(6). 942–948. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pouscoulous, Nausicaa & Michael Tomasello. 2020. Early birds: Metaphor understanding in 3-year-olds. Journal of Pragmatics 1561. 160–167. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schulze, Cornelia. 2020. Pragmatics. In Stephen Hupp & Jeremy Jewell (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development, 1–12. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schulze, Cornelia, Susanne Grassmann & Michael Tomasello. 2013. 3-year-old children make relevance inferences in indirect verbal communication. Child Development 84(6). 2079–2093. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schulze, Cornelia & David Buttelmann. 2021. Children understand communication intuitively, but indirect communication makes them think twice: Evidence from pupillometry and looking patterns. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 2061. 105105. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schulze, Cornelia & Henrik Saalbach. 2022. Socio-cognitive engagement (but not socioeconomic status) predicts preschool children’s language and pragmatic abilities. Journal of Child Language 49(4). 839–849. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan & Deirdre Wilson. 1986/1995. Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Staikova, Ekaterina, Hilary Gomes, Vivien Tartter, Allyssa McCabe & Jeffrey M. Halperin. 2013. Pragmatic deficits and social impairment in children with ADHD. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 54(12). 1275–1283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 2008. Origins of human communication (The Jean Nicod Lectures). Cambridge: MIT press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Westby, Carol & Silvana M. R. Watson. 2021. ADHD and communication disorders. In Jack S. Damico, Nicole Müller & Martin J. Ball (eds.), The handbook of language and speech disorders, 529–570. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre. 2020. Acquiring irony. In Klaus P. Schneider & Elly Ifantidou (eds.), Developmental and Clinical Pragmatics, 149–176. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zajączkowska, Maria & Kirsten Abbot-Smith. 2020. “Sure I’ll help — I’ve just been sitting around doing nothing at school all day”: Cognitive flexibility and child irony interpretation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 1991, 104942. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zufferey, Sandrine. 2015. Acquiring pragmatics: Social and cognitive perspectives. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. Pragmatic development in a first language: An overview. In Klaus P. Schneider & Elly Ifantidou (eds.), Developmental and Clinical Pragmatics, 33–60. Berlin & Boston: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue