Helping Children With Visual Impairment Develop Humour: A Review of The Literature

British Journal of Visual Impairment
http://jvi.sagepub.com
Helping children with visual impairment develop humour: a review of the

literature
Paul J. Pagliano, Alana M. Zambone and Pat Kelley
British Journal of Visual Impairment 2007; 25; 267
DOI: 10.1177/0264619607079808
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THE BRITISH
BJVI JOURNAL OF
VISUAL
Helping children with visual IMPAIRMENT
Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications
(Los Angeles, London, New Delhi
impairment develop humour: and Singapore)
Vol 25(3): 267–279
DOI: 10.1177/0264619607079808
a review of the literature RESEARCH REPORT
PAU L J . PAG L I A N O James Cook University, Australia
A L A NA M . Z A M B O N E East Carolina University, USA
PAT K E L L E Y Texas Tech University, Texas, USA
ABSTRACT Humour is a highly regarded attribute and often

forms the basis of childhood friendships. As much humour is visual,
children with visual impairment are particularly vulnerable to miss-
ing out on this type of development. Recent research indicates that
children can be taught to develop their sense of humour. Therefore,
children with visual impairment must be given plentiful opportuni-
ties to overcome limitations so that they are not excluded. This arti-
cle recommends that children with visual impairment be explicitly
taught about humour in order to facilitate more active inclusion in
the pleasurable pursuits of their social cohort. Research on stages
of humour development in children is discussed, and those char-
acteristics and processes that assist the learning process in children
with visual impairment are highlighted. Techniques for the six
major aspects of instruction in humour are described, along with
strategies for addressing challenges faced by children with visual
impairment in their efforts to appreciate humour.
K E Y WO R D S ex p a n d e d c o r e c u r r i c u l u m , h u m o u r
c u r r i c u l u m , h u m o u r d e ve l o p m e n t , q u a l i t y o f
life, social skills, visual impairment
INTRODUCTION
The ability to perceive an experience as amusing is a highly regarded
attribute in most cultures throughout the world and significantly con-
tributes to quality of life. Because everyone is born with the potential for
humour, it can be learned (Bhaerman, 2004; McGhee, 2002). Frequently
the basis of childhood friendship is shared enjoyment of jokes, cartoons,
television and movies. Humour pervades every aspect of teaching and
267
B R I T I S H J O U R NA L O F V I S U A L I M PA I R M E N T 2 5 ( 3 )
learning – children with visual impairment who do not perceive or

understand humour risk social ostracism and may miss essential con-
cepts (Specter, 1992). Since a great deal of humour is visual, children
with visual impairment must be provided with instruction to develop
their capacity for humour so that they are not excluded from this impor-
tant sharing process.
WHY IS HUMOUR IMPORTANT?

Humour is fundamental to high self-esteem and good mental health. It
reduces stress and anxiety by shifting our perspective and can replace
distressing emotions with pleasurable ones. Humour can increase
energy and even help the immune system fight infection (Bhaerman,
2004; Specter, 1992; Sultanoff, 1995).
Humour refines our social skills and cements social bonds, serving as a
tool to capture a group’s attention, help others adopt our point of view,
and redress power imbalances (Trout, 1998). It teaches life lessons and
locks in memories, helping children learn how to make meaning of
communication beyond words. As a catalyst for cognitive, language,
and literacy development, humour can increase children’s vocabulary,
expand world knowledge, develop meta-linguistic awareness, improve
comprehension of figurative language, heighten sensory awareness
and increase problem-solving skills (Bhaerman, 2004; McGhee, 2002;
Specter, 1992).
WHAT IS HUMOUR?
Humour is the quality of being funny. Humour typically can be catego-
rized as visual, auditory or combinations of both. Regardless of the cat-
egory, some form of non-fitting, unexpected, inappropriate, surpri-
sing or incongruous relationship is always present in humour (McGhee,
1979: 46). Table 1 provides an overview of the forms humour assumes
within these categories.
As humour is ‘bound to its time, society’ and ‘cultural anthropology’

(Eco, 1986: 269), standards for what is droll vary among individuals
of different ages, gender and backgrounds, with gender presen-
ting the greatest discrepancy. Because it is most effective through
interaction with others, it is their responses that have the greatest
influence on individual patterns of humour development (Reddy
et al., 2002: 219).
268
PAG L I A N O E T A L . : D E V E L O P I N G H U M O U R
Table 1. Forms of humour

Visual Auditory
Figural Physical Verbal Non-verbal
Cartoons Sight gags Jokes Nonsense sounds
Comic strips/books Practical jokes Puns Body noises
Caricatures Physical Riddles Auditory
Political cartoons impressions Satire impressions
Impersonations Irony Auditory
Mime Limericks impersonations
Wit
HOW DOES HUMOUR DEVELOP?

A child’s capacity to appreciate humour depends on their cognitive and
sensory abilities, prior experiences and stages of development. Changes
in basic patterns of humour at different ages depend on underlying
changes in intellectual development. The four basic stages of humour
development in young children first identified by McGhee (1979) have
been validated in subsequent research in this area (Johnson and Mervis,
1997; Klein, 1992). The stages, as defined by McGhee are:
1. incongruous actions toward objects;

2. incongruous labeling of objects and events;
3. conceptual incongruity; and
4. multiple meanings.
Table 2 provides a more detailed overview of the developmental

trajectory of humour.
Development of humour begins when infants are captivated by the

novelty of an event or experience. According to Hyvarinen (2004), a
newborn infant can visually copy basic expressions and may even have
visual communication as a reflexive function during the first day of life.
A similar claim about auditory communication has been made for hear-
ing. This means that the baby has the capacity to receive a ‘play signal’
from a caregiver from a very early age.
A play signal is any expression, be it auditory, visual or composite,

designed to inform the observer that the ensuing activity is just for fun
269
Table 2. Overview of humour development

Developmental stages Expression
Pre-humour
0 – 2 months (pre-humour)
Week 1 (during sleep) Spontaneous central nervous system
activity result in smile-like expressions
Week 2 – 3 First wakeful smile, tends to occur after
feeding
End of 1st month Combination of mother’s voice & tactile
stimulation produces signs of appreciation
6 – 8 weeks Real social smile appears
2 – 4 months
Month 2 Broadened smile connected to broader
range of events (moving objects or lights)
Month 3 or 4 Meaningful events (responds to static
mother’s face)
Between 3 and 6 months Smile of recognition (moderate amount
of effort)
4 – 6 months Ability to form specific expectations and
recognizes violations of these expectations
Auditory and physical cues (kissing
stomach, raspberries)
7 – 9 months Recognizes events discrepant from familiar
and violation of expectations, yet safe
and secure
Response to tactile items begins to
decrease and response to visual human
items increases
Auditory and tactile cues (squeaky voices,
peek-a-boo)
9 – 12 months Visual and social items (covered face,
shaking hair, disappearing object)
Produce discrepant events (covering
adults face, repeating actions)
Humour
Stage 1: 1 – 2 years Incongruous actions toward objects (drive
a rattle like a car). Sensorimotor (Piaget,
1952). Pre-social (Loevinger, 1976)
270
Table 2 (continued)
Developmental stages Expression
Humour
Stage 2: 2 – 3 years Incongruous labelling of object (name an
object and then pretend to get it wrong
e.g. see a cat and say dog, point to nose
and say ear). Preoperational (Piaget, 1952).
Impulsive (Loevinger, 1976)
Stage 3: 3 – 7 years Conceptual incongruity (horse says moo
or has two tails), Concrete operational
(Piaget, 1952), self-protective
(Loevinger, 1976)
Perceive varying degrees of incongruity
(development of perceptual orientation)
Gender changes (calling Mummy Daddy)
Stage 4: 7 years to Multiple meanings, ambiguity (e.g. puns)
adult-hood (humour First signs of logic (e.g. riddles)
becomes more Concrete operational thinking
‘culture/social’ specific (Piaget, 1952)
and sophisticated) Less egocentric
rather than serious or threatening. It is this play signal that directs the infant
to take pleasure in the ensuing novel or unusual experience. Because the
child’s perception of that incongruity can lead to amusement, curiosity or
fear, the play signal helps prevent the infant from becoming anxious when
a novelty is too extreme or the child is not feeling secure.
As early as two months of age, infants perceive incongruities and

receive signals from caregivers that cue them to respond with humour
(Bariaud, 1989; Johnson and Mervis, 1997; McGhee, 1979). For a child
with visual impairment, experiences may appear quite abnormal when
perceived through hearing alone. If we consciously present incon-
gruities and meaningful signals such as tactile kisses and silly noises to
infants with visual impairment prior to emergence of language, we lay
a solid foundation for full development of their capacity for humour.
Children’s response to and production of humour is closely connected to

the development of symbolic play. Children will produce and respond to
visual humour shortly after the initiation of symbolic play (Johnson and
Mervis, 1997). Production of verbal humour occurs as the child begins to
271
master the vocabulary and the conceptual underpinnings of language.

Typically, incongruent labels represent the earliest stage of development of
verbal humour, followed by incongruent attributes of concepts and word
play, and ultimately increasingly complex meta-linguistic capacity such as
puns and nonsense words. Johnson and Mervis found that the inclusion of
words in their subject’s lexicon assumed greater importance for his devel-
opment of verbal humour than play signals in social situations. Thus,
increasing the capacity of children with visual impairment to recognize
and appreciate humour is initially based on access to signals followed by
opportunities to develop concepts and increasingly complex language.
HOW CAN WE FACILITATE DEVELOPMENT OF

HUMOUR?
By facilitating concept and language development, children with visual
impairment develop the foundation for humour. Including humour as
an integral part of the curriculum helps children with visual impairment
achieve the cognitive, emotional, and linguistic benefits that are an out-
come of humour.
As in any curricular area, instruction in humour requires thoughtful

planning, an understanding of the child as a learner and an individ-
ual, as well as an understanding of the child’s culture and context. The
framework for teaching humour discussed below encompass the prac-
tices that are integral to effective instruction in any area, specifically:
1) feedback; 2) mediated exposure; 3) reframing; 4) direct instruction
and practice; 5) social instruction; and 6) planning and coaching.
Feedback
The play signal that helps the infant with visual impairment enjoy novel
experiences represents the earliest form of feedback about what is
funny. This feedback quickly evolves into eliciting and responding to a
child’s laughter. The key in infancy is to ‘act silly’ to provide signals that
captivate rather than frighten or confuse the child (Frankel, 2003).
Building on reliable, positive experiences is the bridge to further novel
experiences. For example, giving kisses until they become familiar and
pleasurable, then transforming the kisses into unexpected tickles pro-
vides safe incongruities linked to grounded or emerging concepts.
As children with visual impairment grow, their attempt at humour is an

essential part of the learning process (Frankel, 2003). This is the time
when children shape their understanding of humour and perfect their
272
skill. The adult or older child helps the toddler to act in an incongruous
way through modeling and by providing feedback through laughter. For
example, when the child with a visual impairment waves a rusk during
snack time, the adult can pretend to be a barking dog who wants a
bone; extending the humorous interaction by waving the rusk and
encouraging the child to act like a barking dog.
As symbolic play and language emerge, adults capitalize on the poten-

tial humour of the situation and consistently respond to children’s
efforts by laughing and imitating the child’s efforts at humour. In this
way, adults provide children with suitable scaffolds to appreciate and
extend the humour.
The caregiver can teach the child how to reframe potentially confusing
or upsetting situations into funny experiences by emphasizing the
incongruities. For example, when a child is crying for attention or
because of frustration, adults can imitate the child’s cry. Once they have
child’s attention, they can then cry louder, stopping when the child does
and resuming their mimicry if the child begins to cry again. Once the
child recognizes the absurdity of the situation then both will enjoy a
good laugh and cuddles.
Once children with visual impairment are absolutely certain of a con-

cept, adults can encourage them to call a familiar object by an incorrect
name. For example, calling a ‘moo cow’ a ‘gee gee’ can greatly amuse a
child at this stage of humour development. Also the imitation of sound
effects from the world around them or their own bodies can prove
hilarious (but beware, not everyone outgrows this form of humour,
particularly adolescent males). Other ‘word play’ can include changing
song lyrics, poems or stories. Feedback that something is humorous is the
critical variable but enormously difficult because it must match the child’s
levels of sensory, cognitive, linguistic and humoristic development if it is
to make sense to the child.
Mediated exposure
Mediated exposure is helping children to recognize the characteristics
and thought processes underlying something humorous and challenging
them to apply those concepts to other situations (Bhaerman, 2004).
Children with visual impairment should be provided with clear indica-
tions and explanations to help them understand the way others are using
irony, exaggeration, puns or other forms of humour to make a point or
defuse a situation. Their attention should be directed to different forms of
273
humour in texts, lectures, and other situations. Mediated exposure raises

awareness of different humoristic forms such as oxymorons (e.g. jumbo
shrimp) or puns (e.g. Why do I spend so much money during my
‘free time’?).
Engaging children in activities such as reading riddle books and other

sources of humour as well as looking for multiple meanings in such
places as advertisements and street signs increases their creative
thinking, language and literacy skills and sharpens their sense of
humour.
Mediated exposure sits comfortably with Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of

the zone of proximal development where the teacher works within the
space between the child’s actual and potential level of humour devel-
opment. Instruction that relates to mediated exposure should therefore
aim to place the child with visual impairment into situations just
beyond what they can already independently enjoy but no more diffi-
cult than what they can reasonably achieve with assistance.
Reframing
Reframing – shifting the context – is a valuable way to help children use
humour to resolve personal incongruities, shift emotions and relieve
anxiety. Through this effort, children learn to use humour as a tool to
further self-esteem and manage their emotional states. Reframing can
accentuate the positive aspects of an experience instead of dwelling on
the negative and help alleviate vulnerability, important skills for chil-
dren with visual impairment. A joke where reframing provides the basis
for understanding humour is:
Teacher: What’s the matter?

Tom: My new shoes hurt.
Teacher: That’s because you have got them on the wrong feet.
Tom: Well, they’re the only feet I have! (Archbold et al., 2001)
Direct instruction and practice

When children are struggling to perceive, understand or produce
humour, breaking it into its component elements can serve as a useful
diagnostic exercise to identify and attend to cognitive and linguistic
concerns. Pearson (2004) describes her great success in providing direct
instruction to Scottish 10 year olds writing funny stories. She utilized
teacher/child conversations to help children articulate what they were
274
imagining when their writing skills limited their expression. Specter’s

(1992) analysis of humour offers five broad aspects to be addressed
through direct instruction:
• linguistic elements;
• conceptual understanding and general knowledge;
• vocabulary comprehension;
• abstraction;
• perspective-taking.
Linguistic elements
Specter (1992: 21) identifies four broad categories of linguistic ele-
ments. They are:
1. lexical items (e.g. Janitors call for sweeping reforms!);

2. phonological (e.g. ‘Knock knock! Who’s there? Police. Police who?
Police open the door!’ [Archbold et al., 2001]);
3. morphological (e.g. What pet makes the best music? A trumpet!); and
4. syntactic (e.g. Julie: ‘Do you realise it takes three sheep to make one
sweater?’ Bill: ‘I didn’t even know sheep could knit!’).
Specter recommends teachers present examples of humour that rely on

different linguistic elements to identify where children are having diffi-
culty. Once the linguistic element has been identified, the teacher can
focus on that element in ways that match the child’s interest and level
of development. For example, riddles that rely on phonological ele-
ments can be presented to address phonological difficulties. According
to Specter, teachers can provide ‘helpful hints’ such as listing two inter-
pretations of word play, exemplified in the following riddle: ‘What
dog has money? A bloodhound because he is always picking up
scents/cents.’ (Archbold et al., 2001). Other suggestions include having
children change the rate or pronunciation of words and phrases and
using questions to help the child to analyse something that they do not
understand – such as a joke that is a twist on an idiom: ‘I know that owl
is sick because he doesn’t give a hoot’ (2001: 23).
Conceptual understanding and general knowledge

Educators must determine whether children with visual impairment have
the necessary concepts and experiences to understand something humor-
ous. Conversely, humour that relies on concepts children are learning in
social studies, literacy or other academic areas can be useful to both rein-
force new concepts and to refine children’s ‘humour skills’. Humour can
also be used to help children understand and remember concepts. Lastly,
275
exposing children to popular culture, encouraging them to ask about

cultural references or indeed any humour they do not understand is
critical for understanding and appreciating the humour of their peers and
that of the general community.
Abstraction
Some children with visual impairment are skilled at abstraction, while oth-
ers struggle to understand things that are not part of their direct experience.
Helping children with visual impairment identify an incongruity and show
how it makes sense not only develops their sense of humour, it increases
their capacity to think about and understand the world conceptually. One
approach is to analyse the statements of a humorist, such as that of
Groucho Marx: ‘Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a
dog, it’s too dark to read’. Another is to use multiple choices to answer a
question or arrive at a ‘punchline’. Exercises such as matching the ele-
ments of a riddle or pun are also useful for the development of humour.
Perspective-taking
Perspective-taking – considering things from the point of view of others –
is particularly difficult for many youngsters with visual impairment. Using
humour to develop this critical component can increase their capacity for
empathy and sympathy. Some approaches include:
• having children ‘act out’ physically how someone or something

might feel or behave in a joke or story;
• analysing the humour of someone who is attempting to resolve an
incongruity or to describe an experience or idea;
• having children describe things that they have done or that happened
to them, then retell it as if they were another person who had the
same experience, e.g. How would your Mum tell that story about the
ice cream flying from the cone onto the back of the stranger stand-
ing near you in the market?; and
• asking children to retell a story as if they were talking to different
audiences, such as a story to a friend or their uncle.
Social instruction
Just as children with visual impairment must learn how to behave
appropriately in different situations and with different people, they
should be taught when to use humour and the difference between
‘good’ and ‘bad’ humour (Sultanoff, 1995). Because humour is so often
a matter of taste and cultural norms, it is important not to impose the
276
adult’s preferences and standards on the child’s appreciation of humour.

Humour that is hurtful to a person or group of people, however, is never
acceptable.
Children must learn how to poke fun at a situation – not another person
or group. ‘Good’ or ‘healthy’ humour stimulates wit, mirth and laughter;
defuses a situation and releases tension. ‘Bad’ or ‘hurtful’ humour cre-
ates pain and distance, exacerbates a situation and increases tension
(Sultanoff, 1995). Children with visual impairment may also require
instruction to learn when some forms of humour such as playful insults
or sarcasm is or is not acceptable, for example:
• when another person uses it with them (e.g. exchanging clever

insults with affection);
• when they have a strong relationship with another person (not when
they are getting to know them);
• when the situation is socially appropriate (e.g. at a party, but not a
church service); and
• when they aim it at themselves.
Planning and coaching

As in any skill or ability, helping children with visual impairment plan
how to use humour and providing them with coaching to refine their
use of humour are important aspects of teaching humour. Some strate-
gies for doing so include collecting humour and keeping a ‘humour
journal’ of things people say that seem funny to the journal keeper. As
a teacher, sharing the history and meaning of something from one’s own
journal models and encourages children to save or create their own
humour. Borrowing from the ‘social stories’ research by writing scripts
and humorous stories with the child is another effective approach.
SUMMARY
For busy teachers serving children with visual impairment, the notion of
teaching humour and finding time to include it in the curriculum may
be overwhelming. However, with a little thoughtful planning, an under-
standing of the child as a learner and an individual, a deep knowledge
of content and a capacity for joy, silliness and irony, it can be one of the
most enjoyable and rewarding ways to approach teaching and learning.
Humour curriculum and instruction can be embedded in any and every
curriculum area and instructional experience. It deepens and enriches
the child’s mastery of content knowledge, skills and concepts across
277
developmental and academic domains. Humour stabilizes everyone’s

emotions, such as frustration and boredom, and provides opportunities
for peer interaction and cooperative learning. Explicitly teaching
humour to children with visual impairment helps promote successful
inclusion in regular education by ensuring that these children have the
necessary social capital to effectively interact with and entertain their
peers. Furthermore the skills learnt are repaid in kind.
References
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Funny Jokes. London: Kingfisher.
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Contemporary Society 21(1/2): 15–45.
BHAERMAN, S. (2004) ‘Laughter and Mental Flexibility’, Journal of the Association
for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (February). Online: http://www.aath.
org/articles/art_bhaerman_01.html [accessed May 2007].
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London: Pan Books.
FRANKEL, V. (2003) ‘The Fun of Funny Kids’, Parenting 17(8): 122–7.
HYVARINEN, L. (2004) ‘LEA-Test, Ltd.’. Online: http://www.lea-test.fi/ [accessed
January, 2007].
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Study’, Infant Behavior and Development 20(2): 187–96.
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Education 68(4): 213–17.
LOEVINGER, J. (1976) Ego Development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
MCGHEE, P. E. (1979) Humor: Its Origin and Development. San Francisco, CA:
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Humor: Stumble bees and Pelephones. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
PEARSON, C. (2004) ‘Children Writing Funny Stories: Some Reflections on the
Impact of Collaborative Talk’, Literacy 38(1): 32–9.
PIAGET, J. (1952[1936]) The Origins of Intelligence in Children (M. Cook, Trans.).
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REDDY, V., WILLIAMS, E. & VAUGHAN, A. (2002) ‘Sharing Humour and Laughter in
Autism and Down’s Syndrome’, British Journal of Psychology 93(2): 219–42.
SPECTER, C. (1992) ‘Remediating Humor Comprehension Deficits in Language-
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23(1): 20–7.
SULTANOFF, S. (1995) ‘What is Humor?’, Therapeutic Humor 9(3): 1–2.
TROUT, S. (1998) ‘Humor Touches the Whole Brain – The Whole Person’,
Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. Online: http://www.aath.
org/articles/art_trout01.html [accessed February 2006].
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278
PAUL J. PAGLIANO
School of Education
James Cook University
Townsville 4811
Queensland
Australia
Email: Paul.Pagliano@jcu.edu.au
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British Journal of Visual Impairment

Helping children with visual impairment develop humour: a review of the

The online version of this article can be found at:

Email Alerts: http://jvi.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts

Citations (this article cites 8 articles hosted on the

Downloaded from http://jvi.sagepub.com at UNIVERSITAT AUTÒNOMA DE BARCELONA on February 19, 2008

a review of the literature RESEARCH REPORT

PAU L J . PAG L I A N O James Cook University, Australia

A L A NA M . Z A M B O N E East Carolina University, USA

PAT K E L L E Y Texas Tech University, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT Humour is a highly regarded attribute and often

learning – children with visual impairment who do not perceive or

WHY IS HUMOUR IMPORTANT?

As humour is ‘bound to its time, society’ and ‘cultural anthropology’

Table 1. Forms of humour

HOW DOES HUMOUR DEVELOP?

1. incongruous actions toward objects;

Table 2 provides a more detailed overview of the developmental

Development of humour begins when infants are captivated by the

A play signal is any expression, be it auditory, visual or composite,

Table 2. Overview of humour development

As early as two months of age, infants perceive incongruities and

Children’s response to and production of humour is closely connected to

master the vocabulary and the conceptual underpinnings of language.

HOW CAN WE FACILITATE DEVELOPMENT OF

As in any curricular area, instruction in humour requires thoughtful

As children with visual impairment grow, their attempt at humour is an

As symbolic play and language emerge, adults capitalize on the poten-

Once children with visual impairment are absolutely certain of a con-

humour in texts, lectures, and other situations. Mediated exposure raises

Engaging children in activities such as reading riddle books and other

Mediated exposure sits comfortably with Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of

Teacher: What’s the matter?

Direct instruction and practice

imagining when their writing skills limited their expression. Specter’s

1. lexical items (e.g. Janitors call for sweeping reforms!);

Specter recommends teachers present examples of humour that rely on

Conceptual understanding and general knowledge

exposing children to popular culture, encouraging them to ask about

• having children ‘act out’ physically how someone or something

adult’s preferences and standards on the child’s appreciation of humour.

• when another person uses it with them (e.g. exchanging clever

Planning and coaching

developmental and academic domains. Humour stabilizes everyone’s

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