Toddler Translation: Laughter

laugh (lf, läf)

v. laughed, laugh·ing, laughs

1. To express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements.

2. To show or feel amusement or good humor.

There is little I love more than the sound of Immy’s deep belly laugh when she is being tickled or finds something amusing. Toddlers have such a fun, quirky view of the world that you never know what is actually going to tickle their fancy! This photo was taken at breakfast recently when we were singing a song about various jungle animals we met when out walking in the jungle. As Immy was eating a banana, I made a joke of the fact that she was out walking in the jungle and met a banana! She found it absolutely hilarious!!

What’s funny when
(from Anatomy of a funny bone by Pete Nelson, in Wondertime magazine, April 2009)
4 to 6 months
bouncing, tickling, other physical stimulation
6 to 12 months
unusual behaviour of familiar people (peekaboo)
12 months to 5 years
misuse of objects (“let me answer my shoe phone”)
2 to 4 years
nonsense words, misnamed objects
3 to 6 years
conceptual inconguity (“that bear sure is enjoying his ice cream cone”)
7 years plus
word play, puns (“where do bees go to the toilet? At the BP station”)

What funny things do your toddlers do or say to make themselves or you laugh out loud? We could all do with more laughter in our lives and a photo or a few words can tell us so much about the spirited life of a toddler. Feel free to join Toddler Translation, copy the button and if you post, let me know and I will add a link to my post.

Happy Translating!

Check out these other great Toddler Translations

  • Cat at Adventures with Kids unveils the Tickle Monster!!!
  • See some fantastic photos of laughter in action at Amanda’s Musings

5 Comments

  1. That is so interesting about what makes children laugh at different ages – and I'm going to be trying it out on my children.
    I love your photo – it is so hard to get a photo of you child laughing (for me the camera is too distracting).

  2. Hi Christine,
    This is a great list! Thanks so much for visiting my blog the other and commenting on my "moments with my girl" post. It's great to meet you and discover a new blog!!
    Cheers,
    Louisa

  3. It's funny you should post this today – my Mom and I were just talking tonight about the funny things my 19 month old laughs about. He was at my mom's today and she drinks tea and will often let him have a few sips. We were eating supper and he kept saying tea, and we were saying "no, we don't have tea here". Finally he said "Nana tea" and I said "Yeah, Nanny drinks tea!" and then he said "Mama tea" and giggle like crazy. I laughed and said "Nooo Mama doesn't drink tea" and he said "Mama tea" again and giggled a bunch more. Apparently the thought of me drinking tea is quite funny!

    Another one recently was we were singing "Elmo's song" and I started singing "This is a baby – la la la la – Mama's baby" and he said "Ho Ho baby" and I said "Are you HoHo's baby?" and he said "Yaaaa" and then laughed and laughed.

  4. Oh… I thought the list was interesting! I'm off to make my baby laugh again!

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