Kids develop sense of humor by age 1 (Guangzhou)

Protected content develop sense of humor by age 1

"Humor might seem like a frivolous topic, but it provides a vehicle for understanding infant development, in this case the development of social referencing. This study shows that 6-month-olds pay attention to 'unsolicited emotional advice' from parents during ambiguous situations that might be funny.

Humor is acquired. Because, infants simply do not have the verbal and cognitive ability to process jokes. The baby laughing when tickled is just a response to physical stimulation. As they grow a bit, they see the adults laughing and mimic them. Then they see they can please the adults by laughing and they laugh. Then they realize that some thing falling down and the mother making a funny ‘oopsie-doopsie’ or a parent making a silly face is an unexpected action and they laugh in response to that. Humor development is strongly associated with the brain's ability to process and support the processed information.

For the study, U.S. researchers studied 30 babies in their homes when they were 6 months old and 1 year old. Initially, the babies watched their parent react to two ordinary events in which a researcher read a picture book and showed a small red foam ball to the babies.

The two events were then changed to be absurd. The researcher bounced the open picture book on her head while she said "Zoop! Zoop!" and then put the foam ball on her nose while she poked at it and said "Beep! Beep!" During this odd behavior by the researcher, the parents were told to either point and laugh at the researcher or to just stare without expression.

The 6-month-old babies stared longer at the absurd events than they did at the normal events, but their reactions to the events did not depend on their parents' responses. However, the babies did watch their parents closely when they laughed. By the time they were 1 year old, the babies laughed at the absurd events even if their parents remained expressionless. The combination of paying close attention to absurd events and to others laughing at those events when they are 6 months old may explain how babies develop the sense of humor they have when they're a year old, the researchers suggested. The study was scheduled for presentation Sept. 6 at a British Psychological Society meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

" Findings suggest that 6-month-olds are starting to see parents as a source of emotional information, and this is likely to be an important step on the way to being able to obtain emotional advice from parents when this is needed, which we know infants do at 8 months. By 12 months, infants seem to have had just enough life experience to make up their own minds -- at least about what is absurdly funny," The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Here are some practical tips to make your kids creative and humerous :

1. Encourage kids to be creative.
2. Play with the baby.
3. Laugh with the baby.
4. Listen to your child's stories.
5. Read humorous stories.
6. Use humor as an alternative to scolding.
7. Plenty of interaction with the father ,the logical reasoning behind this sexist statement is that the mother has more parenting responsibilities and is always a serious task master. But the father tends to be the good cop and his mood is more relaxed. For example, when the baby is scooping her peas and throwing it all over the room, instead of worrying about clean up and nutrition, like the mother does, the father laughs and makes jokes.

Maternity and Infant Care center
Guangzhou Elizabeth Women's Hospital
NO. Protected content Wang Zhong Road
Liwan District, Guangzhou, Protected content
Tel: Protected content
(Line 1 , Chen Clan Academy Metro Station, Exit-C)
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