Humor and Children's Development: A Guide to Practical Applications [Hardcover]

Here is the first book that is geared toward practical applications of humor with children. Health care professionals, counselors, social workers, students, and parents will find this to be a fascinating, instructive volume that illustrates how to effectively incorporate humor into childrens lives to produce enormously positive results. With a strong “how to” focus, this enlightening volume addresses the use of humor in the classroom--to promote learning and to foster higher levels of creative thinking. Experts who are on the cutting edge of humor and its benefits for children examine the importance of humor in fostering social and emotional development and in adapting to stressful situations. And for the scholarly reader, Humor and Childrens Development documents the major research trends focusing on humor and its development. This excellent resource--certain to spark further debate and research--offers an unrivaled opportunity to further understand childrens behavior and development.

Humor and Childrens Development was featured in the February 1990 issue of Working Mother magazine in article titled “Let Laughter Ring!” by Eva Conrad.

The chapter entitled “Humor in Childrens Literature” by Janice Alberghene was one of the finalists for the Childrens Literature Associations Literary Criticism Award for the best critical article of 1988 on the subject of childrens literature.ContentsPreface

• Introduction: Recent Developments in Humor Research
• Part I: Developmental Changes in Childrens Humor
• Introduction
• Age Differences in Childrens Humor
• Part II: Cognitive Benefits
• Introduction
• Using Humor to Promote Learning in the Classroom
• Going West to Get East: Using Metaphors as Instructional Tools
• Using Humor to Develop Creative Thinking
• Part III: Sol³™