A sense of humor has been linked to social competence, popularity, and adaptability. The purpose of this review was to investigate the extant research in humor in childhood. Emerging work on the neuroanatomy of humor was discussed with findings of right hemispheric involvement for the comprehension and appreciation of humor for the affective network and the left hemisphere for cognitive understanding. These findings are intriguing when examining humor functioning in children with various disabilities, particularly the right hemisphere for children with autistic spectrum disorders or nonverbal learning disabilities. Examination of research in humor in childhood disabilities found most articles on humor in children with autistic spectrum disorder or mental retardation, with few to none in learning disabilities or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It was concluded that further study is needed to understand humor in children with disabilities and that such understanding will assist with interventions.
The normal development of humor in children has been well documented with a predictable course that is tied to social, cognitive, and linguistic development in children. This study explored humor comprehension in children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD). Children with NVLD were compared with children with reading disabilities and a comparison group of children with no learning disabilities to assess their comprehension of humor. The humor test was composed of a joke and cartoon section. No group differences in humor comprehension were found when the NVLD group was defined as having visual-spatial and visual reasoning deficits. However, when the NVLD group was divided into children with and without social perceptual difficulties as defined by a direct measure of social comprehension, significant group differences were found in the levels of humor comprehension. These results support the association of humor comprehension with social perception and lend tentative support to the hypothesis that children with NVLD may not be a homogenous group. Future study directions include further exploration into the nature of the association between humor comprehension and social perception as well as closer examination of the heterogeneity of NVLD.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.