I am fascinated with my son's laughter. He throws his head back and laughs out loud. I can give anything to keep that going. I'm lucky that my husband has the greatest wit matching my son's sense of humour. I see them together and it warms me inside. This led me to think about humour and it's usage in early childhood. The following is a paper that I presented at the NAEYC annual conference in Dallas, Tx.
The last decade has seen a rise in
the study of impact of emotions to memory and learning. Researchers believe
that positive emotions enhance memory. With this knowledge, parents and early childhood
care providers, have to better prepare themselves to provide not just a
conducive environment but also work on providing opportunities for positive
emotions. Using humor effectively in the classroom and at home, plays an
important part in reducing the stress in the child. As brain research findings
indicate, reduced stress levels increase the ability to learn and retain new
information.
Developmental Changes in Children’s
Humor
If children were
to gain from the obvious benefits of humor, it is important that parents and
early childhood care providers understand the development of humor in children.
Taking a cue from Piaget’s cognitive stages, leading humor
researcher Paul McGhee, first proposed a comprehensive stage-model of
children’s humor in 1979. This model, last revised in 2002, maps the type of
humor the child is likely fascinated with to underlying changes in her ability
to perceive and make sense of her world.
Adapted from P. McGhee, Understanding and Promoting the
Development of Children’s Humor, Published by Kendall/Hunt.
Table 1 0f 1
|
Sr.
No
|
Stage
|
Ages
|
Description
|
|
1
|
Laughter at the
Attachment Figure
|
6 to 12 or 15 months
|
By the age of six or
seven months, you can find infants laughing at any unusual behavior of a
parent. This might include something like: waddling like a
penguin, making silly faces, sticking half a banana out of the mouth, making
exaggerated animal sounds (barking, mooing, etc.), sucking on a baby bottle,
and so forth.
|
|
2
|
Treating an Object
as a Different Object
|
12 or 15 months to
3, 4 or 5 years
|
For the first time,
they start treating objects as if the objects were something
else. Not all pretend play at this or any other age is humor, but it is
this capacity for pretend that paves the way for the earliest humor created
by the child.
|
|
3
|
Misnaming Objects or
Actions
|
2 to 3 or 4 years
|
Once children
achieve this insight—that it’s hilarious to call something a name you know is
wrong—every object or person is fair game. Cats will be called
dogs, mommy will be called daddy, daddy will be called the child’s own name, and
so on. It’s all just too funny!
|
|
4A
|
Playing with Word
Sounds
|
3 to 5 years
|
Children
become very attuned to the way words sound, and begin playing with the sounds
themselves. This often takes the form of repeating variations of a
familiar word over and over, such as “daddy, faddy, paddy,” or
“silly, dilly, willy, squilly.”
|
|
4B
|
Nonsense Real-Word
Combinations
|
3 to 5 years
|
These
combinations appear to simply be another way of distorting the known properties
of objects. The following are typical of this kind of humor: “I want
more tree milk.” “I have a mail box flower.”
|
|
4C
|
Distortion of
Features of Objects, People or Animals
|
3 to 5 years
|
The
examples below illustrate the most common forms of humor at this stage,
although they are not exhaustive.
a)
Adding features that don’t belong: a dog’s head on a man’s body
b)
Removing features that do belong: a cat with no tail or legs
c)
Changing the shape, size, location, color, length, etc. of familiar things—a
person with a square head
d)
Exaggerated features such as a long neck, big ears, enormous or very pointy
nose—and misplaced features such as eyes and ears in reversed places.
e)
Incongruous or impossible behavior—a cow on roller skates
|
|
5
|
Riddles
and Jokes
|
6yrs onward
|
Complex
riddles and jokes capture the interest of the children and they are ready to
explore books and other content containing these.
|
Role of Humor in the Learning
Process
Research suggests
that humorous episodes enjoyed or created by children are not simply a source
of entertainment but are also a means of cognitive stimulation. The origins and
development of humor depend on the development of general thought processes.
The role that humor plays in the process of development is receiving increased
research attention, and is of special interest to early childhood educators.
This material was
adapted from Klein, Amelia J. (1987). Children's Humor: A
Cognitive-Developmental Perspective. In L. Katz (Ed.), Current Topics
in Early Childhood Education, Vol. VII.
a.
Humor
is a form of play and is a natural medium through which young children can
expand their understanding of the world.
b.
Humor
is highly pleasurable and is associated with cognitive mastery.
c.
Humor
provides children with problems to solve. In a joke, riddle, funny story, or
cartoon, children must resolve incongruity in order to establish the joke.
d.
Humor
promotes divergent thinking, a characteristic of creativity; in order to
establish a joking relationship, the child must discover or create unique
associations among ideas.
e.
Humor
provides the child with an opportunity to learn rules. Humor has a basic
structure that children discover when "playing jokes" on others
(humor based on the element of surprise) or telling riddles (a punch line
logically related to the body of the joke).
Role of Humor in Social and
Emotional Development
Under the premise that humor does
play an important role in the development of social skills, McGhee outlines
four general functions of humor in social interaction. Briefly, they are:
a.
Facilitation
of social interaction - Among both children and adults, humor is now
understood to be one component of interpersonal competence.
b.
Popularity
and friendship - Kids who initiate humor more often are also seen by other
children as being more likeable.
c.
Socially
acceptable expression of aggression - humor provides children with a
socially acceptable means of expressing anger. This will facilitate the
handling of conflicts in social situations throughout the developmental
years.
d.
Softening
an assertive/dominating style of interaction - mastery of humor in social
situations is related to social competence.
Having read about humor, it’s time
to ‘Walk the Talk’
WALK THE TALK – Bring humor into your home and classroom with
these simple yet fun ways.
Silly
Vanilly is my name!
Try
making up silly sounding rhymes to crack up the toddlers.
Comedian
of the month!
Feature
different comedians each month, those that children can enjoy watching and learning
about.
Try
tongue twisters!
She
sells sea shells on the sea shore
Shake up
the routine!
‘Twinkle Twinkle
Little Car’
Be
absurd!!
‘What time is it?’
‘It is 10 past spaceship’
Dramatic
play area!
Wear a funny hat or
a shirt on backward, pretend to order ice cream pizza!
Reading
time can be hilarious!
Silly
face contest
The aim is to get
the other one to laugh while making silly faces.
Have
JOKE FRIDAY
Have
children look forward to being the ‘JOKESTER’
Mismatch
Day!
Have
children dress up in mismatched socks or shoes or hats or just about anything
that is out there.
Let the
children see you laughing!
-
And remember to laugh at yourself
Humor is no laughing matter! The
silliness and the gaiety in the classroom can prove to be beneficial to the
children to develop multiple skills sub-consciously and to retain them better.
Mr. Paul McGhee suggests that humor in children's literature may be a pale
substitute for the jokes children tell each other, and points out the need for
definitive studies in this field of research.
Acknowledgement
Reprinted with permission of the
Center for Early Education and Development (CEED), College of Education and
Human Development, University of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St.
Paul, MN, 55108; phone: 612-625-2898; fax: 612-625-2093; http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed/.
References
Humor Development in Children by Alice Honig in Young Children, May 1988
Humor and Children's
Development: A Guide to Practical Applications, 1989
This material was adapted from Klein, Amelia
J. (1987). Children's Humor: A Cognitive-Developmental Perspective. In L. Katz
(Ed.), Current Topics in Early Childhood
Education, Vol. VII.
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