NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 0F SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS

Children and Humor
Parent Handout

By Frank J. Prerost
Western Illinois University

Background

What exactly is a sense of humor? This question has produced numerous definitions by professionals and non-professionals alike. Psychologists agree that there are two parts to this question. First, there is a mental activity involved in discovering and appreciating events in a humorous way. The mental exercise of understanding the punch line of a joke promotes laughter. Secondly, certain attributes of jokes or situations promote humor. Situations that surprise or are incongruent with one another have the potential to create laughter. Thus, the distinguished person who puts on a pair of strange glasses and a fright-wig may encourage laughter.

A child's sense of humor can be both a source of pleasure and frustration for parents. Many children shock parents with the types of jokes they repeat. Achieving an understanding of the stages of humor children experience and the reasons for enjoying unusual or "dirty" jokes can help to alleviate some of the worry parents often experience.

Development

Before a child develops a sense of humor, smiling appears in the sleep of one-week old infants. This is not a "gas" smile but results from some spontaneous activity in the central nervous system. The first wakeful smile follows within two weeks. By the end of the first month, fully alert smiles occur in response to the caretaker's voice and tactile stimulation. Smiles of recognition to faces and laughter take place by the fourth month. Laughter is promoted by physical activity such as tickling. "Peek-a-boo" elicits laughter by the eighth month. Parents who show silly behavior (e.g., pretending to drink from the baby bottle) can produce laughter by the first birthday. This early smiling and laughter only takes place with familiar people or in safe surroundings.

A genuine sense of humor begins to develop in the second year when the child can engage in fantasy or make-believe behavior. The most common humor in the early preschool years is connected to ongoing play activities. Much of the laughter is a release of excitement built up through physical activity. "Acting silly" enables the child to demonstrate a mastery of physical skills. At this time "group glee" is often found. This is a spontaneous wave of laughter that spreads through a group of playing children. Running, jumping or screaming are all manifestations of a child's humor.

The preschool child's verbal humor reflects attempts to create fantasy from reality. The show their understanding and control of words, they playfully distort them. The child's delights in misnaming objects, or creating new words with nonsensical endings, or endlessly rhyming real or nonsense words. By the conclusion of the preschool years, scatological humor becomes a source of please. Now the child uses "taboo" words or repeats jokes about elimination or body parts. This reflects their concern about cleanliness and sexual interest. In general, their humor is rambling, silly, and repetitious.

Once in elementary school, children's humor reflects increased understanding of words and the double meanings in words. Riddles become very popular. By ten, the riddles may take on aggressive or "sick" humor as the child tries to make them more complex and fit their enhanced cognitive growth. The junior high student should lose interest in riddles and appreciate the humor found in real life stories or anecdotes. Thus, children enjoy talking about others and finding faults in them that can promote humor.

Around the time of puberty, humor becomes aggressive and sexual. Sexual themes can produce laughter without the pretext of a joke being present. These aggressive and sexual jokes reflect the adolescent's own developmental concerns. Youngsters' "gallows" humor has the function of diminishing anxiety. Following disasters, children are quick to "make fun" of the victims. Anxiety produced in the child or adolescent's own life can be controlled by the jokes. Disaster or developmental changes can stimulate anxiety in youngsters about their own safety and understanding of the change. Joking about developmental concerns or disasters enable the teen-ager to feel in control and a master of the situation. But, by adolescence an increased capacity toward elaborate intellectual humor should also be evident.

What can I do as a parent?

Parents need to accept that some humor shown by children will be objectionable. These normative patterns of "sick", "dirty", or aggressive jokes reflect the developmental concerns of children. The humor content changes as the child grows becomes increasingly socially responsible.

Parents can encourage the responsible growth through praising a child's accomplishments in the various activities of life. Punishing a child for humor can prevent a safe release of aggressive or sexual worries. Parents can try to experience humor as a family unit. by sharing humorous activities with the entire family. This experience will assist the child in learning the social nature of humor and become sensitive to the need to be socially responsible in the expression of humor. When selecting appropriate humorous movies, programs, books, or stories for the entire family, consider the following: Does the situation have some humor at the appropriate level for the youngest family member? Does it provide some intellectually challenging elements? Does it convey an acceptance of self and others? Does it reflect on the developmental concerns of the child? Does it provide for social exchange?

Resources

Meryman, R., (1978, February issue). Carol Burnett's own story. McCall's Magazine.
The early development of Ms. Burnett's sense of humor is described. Her experiences nicely illustrate thedevelopment of a healthy sense of humor.

Mindess, H. (1971). Laughter and Liberation. Los Angeles: NASH Publications.
Family and social factors in the development of a sense of humor are presented. What causes problems in humor is discussed.

Pechter, K. (1982, December issue). It Never Hurts When I Laugh! Prevention Magazine.
This article provides some helpful suggestions from a number of humor experts on encouraging good humor expression.

Schwartz, T. (1978, April, 3rd issue). Comedy's new face. Newsweek Magazine.
The early lives of a number of comedians are presented in terms of their humor development. These stories provide some interesting insights into the reasons for attention-getting behavior in childhood.

The Humor Project, Sagamore Institute, Saratoga Springs, New York 12866.
This project is a good source for readings on the development of a sense of humor. The project sponsors many humor workshops appropriate for the lay person throughout the United States.