Humor Development

The purpose of this article is to describe McGhee's (1979) stages of humor development from 18 months to 12 years as they relate to Piaget's cognitive stages (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2001) and social development. Humor develops in stages just as other aspects of child development. It parallels and enhances physical, cognitive, language, and psychosocial skill attainment (Franzini, 2002; Robinson, 1991). Knowledge of humor development will provide therapists with an additional tool to facilitate communication with their pediatric clients by helping therapists consider children's developmental levels when using humor in therapeutic contexts.