Autistics and Figurative Language

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I have been educated in a good school for disabled children in my native New Jersey, and I was aught how to interpret figurative language, first with idioms. When I moved to Florida, I delved into similes, hyperbole, and metaphors. Despite being a high-functioning autistic myself, I was able to better understand figurative language. Well, most autistics are literal thinkers - they have difficulty understanding the aforementioned elements of figurative language as well as sarcasm and jokes. Take, for instance, "What Exit?" Despite being a born and bred Jersey girl who lives off 2-3 exits off the (Garden State) Parkway, I was never asked that. Try asking that to an autistic child who thinks in a concrete manner. He'll ask, "Where's the exit sign," and that would confuse him. So, how do you get your children or yourself, if on the spectrum (have autism), to understand sarcasm, jokes, metaphors, and so on?