Research on Characteristics of Children's Sense of Humor Performance

Abstract: Sense of humor has various aspects of value in promoting children's cognitive ability, sociability, body and mental health. Lack of relaxation and sense of humor is a common situation in the preschool education in... [ view full abstract ]

Abstract: Sense of humor has various aspects of value in promoting children's cognitive ability, sociability, body and mental health. Lack of relaxation and sense of humor is a common situation in the preschool education in China. Studying the behavior of children’s sense of humor will help to explore proper methods of training sense of humor. The characteristics of the humor performance mainly refer to the actions and things which is funny for children, and the punchline of children. 

This qualitative study uses the observation method. Firstly, the humor performance of eight children aged in 5 to 6 years in kindergarten activities, particularly in play are observed and collected. The basic characteristics of children’s humor are then analyzed and summarized. The research reveals that the performance of children’s sense of humor can be divided into three dimensions (including mismatching, taboo, and depreciating) and a total of nine levels. Due to the different cognition and life experience level, humor senses between children and adults shows obvious differences. Children’s sense of humor is in the preliminary stage. It presents mismatching and randomness on superficial phenomenon, and not involving the deep rational logic. 

Lastly, this paper provides a series of suggestions for developing children’s sense of humor and ideas for the future study in this practice field.

Key Words: sense of humor; children’s sense of humor; characteristics of children's sense of humor performance