Possible memories of dissociation.

[Dutch Uncle]

This may be going off at a tangent...

In my FOO, I was at least 4 years junior to any other member.
I have clear recollections that I tried to be part of the conversation (which was usually way over my head: in retro-respect I think my parents parentified everybody in the FOO, as they couldn't (or wouldn't) deal with their own stuff in the privacy of a strictly adult conversation) and so in order to catch up/participate I usually talked in metaphors. For which I often would get rebuked. If not scolded.
Invalidated for sure.
Probably 'rightly' so, since my metaphors didn't make any sense with the subject at hand. But hey, this was an at least four years junior member speaking. When the subject at hand was really adult stuff like Geopolitics, Social (in)justice, discrimination, emancipation... you all probably get the picture.
And I shouldn't leave out scripture (that rimes) which was dealt with in a usually very interpretational way. At the diner table not the scripture itself was read, but parts of chapters from a book that dealt on the meaning of the biblical verses.
Way over the head of any adolescent, let alone a child.

Are metaphors a form of dissociation?
I'd say yes. An innocent one (like daydreaming), but dissociation nonetheless.
And if one gets invalidated at such a young age for trying to 'fit in' by using metaphors to at least be able to be part of the conversation, wouldn't that possibly lead to taking dissociation to higher levels? Just so one can achieve attachment to the peer-group one grows up in? In a more or less desperate attempt to blend in somewhere at least?

[Three Roses]

I think you're on to something, Dutch. At the very least it sounds like it would make you feel like an outsider, and may be as damaging as mucking around with a child's sense of reality. To be only rebuked, instead of a more inclusive, "Well, no dear - it's more like this...." approach seems that it would leave the child wondering about his perceptions of reality.