Laughter makes us human!

You can learn a lot about your baby from what he’s laughing at.

- MARGOT BERTELSMANN

Laughter is universal. It’s a form of communication that is understood across all languages and cultures. Everybody knows it indicates joy or happiness, relief or amusement. Laughing is good for us, too. Many studies have shown that it releases endorphins that can reduce pain; it lessens the effect of allergies; it’s good for heart health as it improves blood flow and increases the heart rate; it decreases physical and emotional stress and improves immunity.

People who use humour as a coping mechanism are generally more resilient to life’s knocks and can better care for themselves. Humour is also a social lubricant and resolves conflicts. Our ability to laugh is inborn and instinctive – deaf and-blind babies laugh, never having heard or seen an example. So, laughter is a powerful tool, and we don’t even have to teach our children to do it! (In fact, it’s often children who remind us parents to laugh more...)

Psychologists and philosophers have studied laughter since the time of Plato. There’s relief theory, which argues that we laugh in relief when tension is resolved. Superiority theory suggests we get a laugh out of someone else’s misfortune. Incongruity theory postulates that we laugh when something doesn’t make sense. As your child ages, he or she may laugh as a result of pleasure, of a sense of relief, superiority or incongruity, or a combination. What was funny to a 1-year old will fail to amuse the same child at 10. What your child is currently amused by gives you a fascinating glimpse into his or her current developmental stage. Here are a few guaranteed rib-ticklers, by age, plus ways to get a grin out of them:

6 WEEKS OLD