Peekaboo games, a guy wearing a sock on his hand, the word ‘dinozorellatourus’… Have you noticed these cheerful clues before? Some events can make children laugh much more than you expect. These laughter of children not only show their joy, at the same time, it is a sign of their cognitive development.
While a toddler finds the words ‘pee’ and ‘poo’ funny during his toilet training, it is not a coincidence that this laughter gives way to unexpected events and word jokes. Humour serves as a way of testing the world and takes part in facilitating the process of getting used to the environment. What children laugh at changes according to their stage of cognitive development. Humour predicts cognitive development so successfully that we can say it may be one of the earliest types of social cognition to emerge (Telli & Hoicka, 2022). Children’s jokes are a sign of their cognitive development, and contribute to their social and cognitive growth. This reciprocal relationship secretly tells a lot about children to careful adults.
Humour and the Theory of Mind
Theory of mind means that the child can move beyond the egocentric thinking style and predict the feelings and thoughts of others. Theory of mind, one of the cornerstones of child development, enables the child to begin to use humour more effectively. Although it may sometimes be considered strange, a child’s enjoyment of white lies like “I didn’t do my homework… Just kidding! I did!” shows that their skill of empathy is developing and that they are at the cognitive development level to guess what others are thinking (Yong & Yun-Rui, 2022).
On the other hand, jokes made with considering others’ understanding are not only a demonstration of empathic ability, but also a developmental tool that increases social skills through trial and error. Thus, children can flourish by making jokes!
The Secret Language of Laughter
While the 0-2 age group has fun with object permanence games, strange sounds, and unusual usage of objects, they also begin to create their sense of humour by observing their surroundings and using elements that trigger reactions of others (Hoicka et al., 2021). The behaviour of laughing out loud at meaningless words and irrelevant concepts, which begins at the age of 2, continues into later ages. At the age of 3, children literally start playing with social rules. It is no coincidence that they are amused by the absurdities that emerge during this period when they are exploring social norms and taboos.
From the age of 4, word jokes and riddles that make children laugh stand out. As they grow older, humour becomes adorned with figures of speech, double meaning, abstract thinking, and irony. Towards adolescence, it can become an indicator of social status.
If we look carefully at what a child laughs at, we can find clues about her cognitive development. Word jokes might be a sign of language development, absurd expressions might indicate abstract thinking, and laughing at obscene words might mean that the child is exploring sexual content. Moreover, children challenge social rules and social boundaries through humour. The concepts they begin to explore first become a source of humour for them, and then a guide in the process of exploring their surroundings. Just like adults find new and absurd things funny!
Actually, having fun with what we just learned can simplify the learning process at any age. Humour can play a role in making learning both fun and easy, and of course, a demonstration of what we are learning about! Since humour plays an active role in the process of exploring the environment, it is inevitable to encounter traces of the environment in which children grew up, their family and friends, in their jokes. Especially during adolescence, jokes can be offensive and much more aggressive as a representation of what they are going through. Humour becomes three-dimensional and complex depending on the effects of aggression, media, and identity change pains experienced within adolescence (Van Der Wal et al., 2022).
CONCLUSION
A small joke can sometimes signal a developmental milestone in a child’s life, and sometimes it can serve as a teacher. Observing children’s humour can help parents learn about their children’s cognitive development and social development. You can follow your children’s developmental steps unfold through their laughter and share a heartfelt laugh with them. Remember, sometimes the most nurturing thing for a child is an adult who shares their laughter!
References
Hoicka, E., Telli, B. S., Prouten, E., Leckie, G., Browne, W. J., Mireault, G., & Fox, C. (2021). The Early Humor Survey (EHS): A reliable parent-report measure of humor development for 1- to 47-month-olds. Behavior Research Methods, 54(4), 1928–1953. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01704-4
Telli, B. S., & Hoicka, E. (2022). Humor and social cognition: Correlational and predictive relations in 3- to 47-month-olds. Cognitive Development, 64, 101245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101245
Van Der Wal, A., Pouwels, J. L., Piotrowski, J. T., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2022). Just a joke? Adolescents’ preferences for humor in media entertainment and Real-Life aggression. Media Psychology, 25(6), 797–813. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2022.2080710
Yong, L., & Yun-Rui, X. (2022, January 20). The White Lie Behavior Involvement on Theory of Mind in Children: The Partial Mediating Effect Of Cognitive Empathy Ability. Journal of Psychological Science. https://jps.ecnu.edu.cn/EN/Y2022/V45/I1/75