Valentina Bambini, Full Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Neurolinguistics and
Experimental Pragmatics Laboratory at the IUSS University School in Pavia (NEPLab), has been
awarded a prestigious ERC Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) under
the 2025 call.
The funded project, entitled “Meta4Kids – An Evidence-Based Digital Toolkit to Enhance
Children’s Metaphor Skills and Strengthen Practitioner Expertise”, will develop an innovative
digital tool that integrates assessment, enhancement, and professional training to support children’s
language development. In particular, the project aims to foster children’s metaphor skills, building
on scientific evidence showing that metaphors play a central role in everyday communication and
learning processes, yet their comprehension involves a complex and late acquisition, strongly
influenced by individual, cognitive, and environmental factors. For example, at age 8 only 40% of
typically developing children show fully mature metaphor comprehension. As a result, it is not
uncommon for children to struggle with metaphors used by teachers in class (for instance, when
describing the atmosphere as “the Earth’s blanket”) or to grasp the implicit meanings of nicknames
and jokes. Difficulties in correctly interpreting implicit meanings can affect learning, social
relationships, and—over time—the communicative skills required in professional contexts. These
challenges are even more significant in cases of neurodevelopmental and language disorders, which
affect approximately 6–10% of children at school entry.
Meta4Kids builds on and translates the outcomes of a previous European project led by Prof.
Bambini, the ERC Consolidator PROMENADE (PROcessing Metaphors: Neurochronometry,
Acquisition and DEcay), transforming advanced research data and methods into a digital solution
ready for large-scale testing in both clinical and educational settings. In particular, Meta4Kids is
grounded in PROMENADE’s experimental findings on the brain processes underlying metaphor
comprehension in middle childhood. By recording the electroencephalographic response from a
sample of more than 60 children, PROMENADE is showing with millisecond precision when
children recognize the non-literal meaning of a metaphor and how this ability matures between ages
7 and 10. On this basis, evidence-based exercises will be developed to support children’s metaphor
skills in inferring non-literal meanings, also integrating Artificial Intelligence features to enhance
the tool’s scalability and accessibility.
The project will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team affiliated with the NEPLab and the
linguistics group at IUSS founded by Prof. Andrea Moro, including Dr. Paolo Canal, a data analysis
expert; Dr. Chiara Pompei, a psychologist with training in language acquisition; and Dr. Federico
Frau, a researcher in neurolinguistics. Expressions of interest in the project have already been
received from the National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research
(INDIRE), as well as from schools and clinical institutions both locally and internationally.