Figures of speech?

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As a parent on the spectrum with 2 young sons on the spectrum, I just realized that I have always made it a point to be very literal in my speaking/teaching, even before I knew they were on the spectrum and before I knew I was on the spectrum. For example, I hardly ever use the standard "colorful" figures of speech, as I figured it would confuse little kids to say them. But once in a while I'll say, "Look at that rain! Some people might say it's raining cats and dogs, but that doesn't really mean cats and dogs are falling out of the sky--It's just a figure of speech meaning that it's raining really hard." I never just say to them, "Look, it's raining cats and dogs!"

When I write poetry though, that is an entirely different matter and I get VERY colorful!

I wonder if NT parents do this when they speak to their kids?

My parents are NT and for as long as i can remember "its raining cats and dogs" have been used, or "its pissen down" or someone will say "the rains getting harder." and someone will comment "Yeah its raining cats and dogs!" so i always managed to pick up on the figures of speech in that way. but i still imagine cats and dogs raining down in buckets when ever it is said. =)

My son knows a lot of these phrases, every one that I can think of or that we've heard on TV. I've always had to explain them to him when they come up. He is able to use several of the more common ones, but whenever he learns a new one that he wants to use, he ends up going through a time period of using it times and places that it doesn't really apply. I just tell him, that doesn't apply here, this is why, and he tries again later. When he was very little it took a long time for him to be able to grok pronouns. He was maybe five almost six before I could be reasonably sure that if I said, "Hand that to me." that he'd understand that I meant hand it to me and not him. I'd try it that way, then have to have to say, "Hand that to Mama." I don't know if that counts toward what you are talking about though.

Ive always talked normally and used long words or a figure of speech but always explained or used an alternative phrase or word that they do understand afterwards. Im NT btw.

My son finds them very amusing. We bought him a couple of books about figures of speech and idioms, and he will identify them in his reading materials and start giggling. He thinks they are very silly and therefore fun.

When i was a child, i would pick up figures of speech or words and then improperly use them. Such as one time i told my granny to leave and "don't forget her pocketbook". I had no recollection of this, although my mother recalled it. I felt bad afterwards as my granny was upset.
I had used that fragment of speech wrong, i'm not sure what my intents were, i doubt anything bad. Yet it turned out bad.

I also got a whopping for stating that i thought my uncle was "a teenager with a hair loss problem" i was being very literal and the family thought i was being sarcastic, which i wasn't.

My mother never used babytalk, i'm sure she used regular speech through out. I would pick up these parts of saying randomly from family members and misuse the context of them which led to my getting in trouble.
In the early 80s we didn't have all they have nowadays it was either classic case Autism or none.

No one has ever said in my family or in my life it's raining cats and dogs. Only my speech therapist said it once and I knew what she meant. They have always said it's pouring or it's raining.

I have used figures of speech with my NT son. One time I told him to watch the dirt and he stares at it instead. I just laughed and thought that was better than him stepping in it. He was only one when he did that. But I knew it meant he could understand already what I tell him.