Humor a different kind of play

Abstract

This study investigates young children's humourous activity as a form of play and considers the implications on their cognitive development and learning. The study was conducted in an infant room of a university based group child care center and multiple qualitative data collection methods were used. The findings of this study suggest that during humourous events children are involved in play activity such as: a) play with materials; b) play with language; c) pretend play; d) physical play, and these forms of play are then turned into humourous events due to the creativity that children exert during such activities. Also, children were involved in routines that they then turned into playful humourous events. This article asserts that there are different socio-cognitive attributes, such as social interaction, creative thinking and metacognitive experience to be considered when investigating the relationship of play, creativity and humour.