Big belly laughs!

Help develop your child’s sense of humour. It’s good for him and a lot of fun too!

Whenwasthelasttimeyou howled with laughter? And your child? Laughing and playing are essential ingredients for a well-functioning family. Fortunately, we’re born with a sense of humour – all that is needed is a little encouragement to get the giggles going.

Children will develop a sense of humour if their parents are sympathetic people who care and make time for fun and laughter, if their parents can laugh at themselves, see the humour in a situation and don’t mind sometimes being the butt of a joke.

While humour isn’t on the list of schoolreadiness skills, it will most certainly help your child develop essential skills for later in life. A child who can laugh at himself and see the light side of life will be popular among friends and also be able to handle hard times with a bit more ease. Humour is most definitely part of your child’s intellectual, social and emotional development. Allow us to convince you…

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Humour helps with vocabulary building. Children love to play with sounds and then later learn the meaning of a word. When a preschooler learns a new joke, he learns new words. When he repeats the joke, the words really become part of his vocabulary.

In Grade 1, children often figure out that one word can have two meanings, and this is usually where the punchline of a Grade 1 joke lies. The laughter can really motivate your child to try and find more of these fun words to use in jokes. Humour in stories can also encourage a love of reading. The funny books are always the popular books! When children are asked to vote for their favourite books, no guesses for which category always wins.

Humour helps with brain development. You can think of humour as a problem to solve. Just think of riddles, or jokes where your child has to work out what is ”wrong” to get the joke. Humour is a mind game! In the joke, reality is twisted, but for your child to figure out what the twist is, he must have a good grasp of reality first, so he can see where the joke veers away… There is also a strong link between humour and creativity, because both ask from us to look at the world in strange or unusual ways. To tell a joke, your child will need to put unique and unexpected ideas together to create something funny. This teaches children to see things from another, unexplored perspective and think innovatively.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Children with a sense of humour are seen by their peers as more social. They often enjoy participating in activities more, which leads to even better social skills.

It is really difficult not to like someone who makes you laugh, after all! Children who learn how to include humour in their social interactions – a skill that improves with practice – are usually more popular, and as a result most likely happier, because friendships are very important to children. They have good people skills, as they know how to put others at ease.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A child who is laughing from the belly is experiencing joy in the moment – that is very clear. Children with a good sense of humour enjoy the popularity that this brings, and as a result they have better self-esteem. The intellectual stimulation offered by a sense of humour can also improve school performance, and that again also leads to good self-esteem. Humour is one of the best ways to deal with stress. This is a skill that could stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. It can make him more resilient against the onslaughts of life to come.

TICKLE THAT FUNNY BONE

When you understand how humour fits into the other skills you would like to develop in your child, you can really enjoy and encourage his growth. We’ve come up with an age-by-age guide to help you understand what works at what age.

1 TO 2 YEARS

WHAT IS THAT DOING THERE?

At the beginning of the second year of life, your toddler will start to enjoy pretend games. This opens up a whole world of humour. You can pretend that one thing is another thing. Put a nappy on your head and pretend it is a hat, for instance. Or pretend that a spoon is your phone and hold it to your ear. Feel free to laugh at your own silly jokes! If your child begins to do these pretend jokes too, make sure you laugh with her. The use of pretty much any object in a very unusual way will get the giggles going. Ever tried to start the car with her dummy?

2 TO 3 YEARS

NAMES ARE SOOOO FUNNY

Children of this age think in very concrete terms and mostly express humour through play or physical activity. You’ll recognise it: that moment when your tot just starts acting silly, pulling faces and flopping around, limbs all over. It often happens in a group of little ones too. They’ll express their delight by hopping up and down and squealing.

As language skills develop, your child will begin to experiment with humour by giving items the wrong name on purpose. This amusement can carry on until about four years old.

Two-year-olds delight in the fact that every single thing has a name, and they are like little sponges that want to learn the names of everything, so you’ll be inundated with ”What is that?” Because they are so driven to exercise their new naming skills, it is just a matter of time before they begin to play with the words they have learnt and mastered.

When learning the names of body parts, for instance, you could ask him to touch his nose, and on purpose he might touch his ear just to get a laugh. He knows the right answer, you know the right answer, but it is so much more fun to get it ”wrong”. This can lead to a lot of hilarity, and he might even begin to call you by your first names, just to get a reaction. Opposites are also entertaining at this age. When you claim that the bath water is hot, he might insist that it is cold, just for fun.

3 TO 5 YEARS SILLY WORDS

The more verbal your child becomes, the more verbal his jokes will become. He will indicate his mastery of words by swopping sounds around on purpose, just for the hilarious effect it creates. He still loves naming things incorrectly, but now he will also begin to make up fun names for things, like chocoloco for chocolate, for instance. He will also delight in stringing together words that rhyme, even if they have no other connection, like sat, mat, cat, hat. Children of this age love playing with the sounds of words. Teach them a silly ”secret” language where you add a sound to the beginning or end of each word. From about 3 years, children begin to understand categories and that certain characteristics belong to certain categories. For example, a dog has fur and four legs and barks. Anything that messes with this reality can lead to lots of laughs. You can pretend that the dog says ”moo” instead of barking or draw a dog with a human head. He’ll love it! Impossible things also make him laugh, for instance a story about how the cat cooked his breakfast. He knows what is possible and what not, but occasionally he’ll have to check the facts with you if your story has been too convincing.

5 YEARS AND OLDER FORBIDDEN WORDS

The types of word humour your child enjoys so far will be refined now, but he also begins to enjoy forbidden words and taboo topics. Brace yourself – toilet humour is likely a part of your daily life now. Don’t be too shocked. This is a normal part of development and discovery of bodily functions. It fades with age.

All his jokes will still be silly, repetitive and often a little confused. Just keep encouraging that sense of playfulness.

At this age, other children’s jokes also become very interesting to your child. They will hear a friend tell a joke and get a reaction and then try and copy it. Sometimes they get the joke right, but often they don’t. You’ll have to grin at many garbled jokes that come home from school with your child.

By Grade 1, his humour has developed to such an extent that riddles become really popular, and you’ll be amazed at the tough ones that he can figure out. Enjoy it! ●