Prosocial humor is one that is used to approach other people, and children begin to use it when they begin to master language. Each child has their own sense of humor, depending on their age, their environment, but it is around three or four years when prosocial humor appears.
Humor becomes more active and social, the child wants to make people laugh, wants to be the protagonist of the joke, of grace, and get closer to his family, friends ... He uses word games, linguistic deformations, long words and difficult ...
The prosocial behavior is formed by all those actions that try to benefit other people without the anticipation of an external reward. This behavior occurs in response to motivations and positive emotional states. That is, in the case of humor, the child will put it into practice when he feels well.
Through laughter, children share their joy through the absurd, the unexpected, the contrast, the exaggeration and even the eschatological references (they are "older" and already control the pee and the poop, they can laugh at it).
The children laugh together and of the same, which unites them as members of the same "group". To approach the other one also grimaces, repeats something funny that came out by chance, repeats jokes for him incomprehensible because he has seen the effect on others ...
In short, he wants to "become funny", he feels free with laughter and feels protagonist, before his friends and also before the elders. From there the social function of important humor at this stage, and the importance of responding and participating in their humor, one more way to play and interact with them.
Between jokes and laughs the barriers between people are broken (also of adults, then humor is still important) and children overcome their shame, face their fears, gain confidence, are released and ultimately feel better. We proposed recently: we have to laugh more in family.
And is that laughter is healthy and makes us more social, humor is one more way children use to interact with others, and a good opportunity on our part to enhance that sense of humor and share it with them, having fun together.
