Understanding and identification of metaphor is analyzed as the relation between activity itself and the subject's understanding of the activity. The author argues that the procedure for diagnosing the way children understand and identify metaphors must include not only checking the correctness of appropriate actions (e.g. matching a metaphor with a phrase expressing the same meaning), but also analyzing the degree of understanding of the action and reasons for it. The article presents experimental data on understanding and identification of metaphor by children based only on the criteria of correctness. The data analyzed show that identification of metaphor presents more difficulties than understanding of it. The data agree with the wellknown fact that understanding of the reality of language and speech in children comes later than the image of the outside world and one's behaviour in it.