I have AS but I never had problem understanding metaphors.

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Is that something common in people with asperger's syndrome or am I the only one?

Good question.

I've had trouble understanding common metaphors (like kill two birds with one stone), but I'm really good at figuring out literary metaphors and creating metaphors. A lot of my recreative thinking involves relating one thing to another and creating huge, complicated, universe-sized metaphors inside of my head. XD

Perhaps the general idea of AS people not understanding metaphors has more to do with not understanding metaphors that have been created by people who don't think in a similar way.

I like creating metaphors too. But I always understood that ''killing two birds with a stone'' means ''earning two good things by doing only one thing''.

surely it's down to the amount of time one spends socialising. The more often a particular metaphor is heard the sooner it will be understood (without having to ask someone)

Was that a metaphor? Just kidding.

I get metaphors but I visualize them literally, so it takes me awhile to tell myself what they really mean.

I didn't understand it until I was a teenager, but now that I understand it it makes perfect sense. Until someone explained it, I always pictured someone throwing a rock at two flying birds and killing them and being happy about it. D: Someone finally took pity and told me that it meant you can complete two tasks by doing one thing or, like you said, earn two things by just doing one thing.

You can kill two birds with one stone by brushing your teeth in the shower while the conditioner sits in your hair. As long as you clean the birds out of the tub afterward... ahahaha.

That's a recipe for disaster with me. Can see myself putting conditioner on my toothbrush and toothpaste in my hair.

OH NO. :[[ The worst of the two is the toothpaste in your hair!
I heard somewhere that mint helps bring down swelling so I put toothpaste under my eyes one morning and oh my godddddd did it burn DDDD:
At least the conditioner would make your teeth soft?

It's fairly rare to be good at metaphors as an Aspie but it isn't unheard of, every Aspie has a slightly different set of symptoms remember.

I personally have taught myself to understand them over the years.

That's pretty scary. Most toothpaste has fluoride in it and to find out what that really means you need to consult a periodic table of elements.

Hi Zitanier

Metaphor is my only true language. I have been fully Dx HFA. However, I have the rare gift of being a highly verbal as well as a visual thinker.

I am a poet and philosopher, so the literal Aspie world is an enigma to me as much as the figurative and metaphorical world is to them.

I feel I live 'in-between' worlds in this respect.

However, I have met and know of many people like me.

Wishing you well my metaphorical aspie friend.

Unfortunately, I can't remember where for sure I saw/heard it, but supposedly in the past the stereotype for ASC's was actually an increased facility with metaphor. I think it was something Anbuend said, and she seems to always really know here stuff.

Personally, I've never had much trouble with metaphors, and when I was younger felt pretty good at inventing them. It felt very intuitive. I have found, though, that for standard/common metaphors, while I almost always get the usage close to correct, I sometimes don't actually have the 'correct' picture or story in my mind. I.e. I used to think that "tapped out" meant something like a beer keg with a tap draining it until it's empty. IOW, meaning: "really empty/drained/tired." But then I heard that it's actually a wrestling term -- that's it's where a wrestler smacks ("taps") his hand on the mat repeatedly to indicate that he's giving up.

I always scored really well on verbal tests, though (137 VIQ, 92 PIQ), so maybe that makes sense. It's ironic that my speech is a mess, though.

Probably relates to time spent socializing, time spent reading literature, and how well you did in English.

Same here. I've never had trouble with metaphors. Metaphors were my special interest at one time and I used to see them to my family, all the time.

I never had a problem with them either. Then again, I've been writing since I was 4 so I have always loved metaphors. Actually I have a bad habit of using them too much and I tend to think in metaphor and describe things as such. Some people think it is strange.