Shared humor and play strengthen children’s brains and emotional health

A leading child development expert tells us that making children laugh can create deeper emotional connections and calm their nervous systems, making them more flexible and open to new ideas.

Dr Jacqueline Harding, Director of Tomorrow’s Child and early childhood specialist at Middlesex University, has conducted extensive research into how laughter and play contribute to healthy brain development, emotional well-being and social engagement.

Through his empirical research and analysis of existing studies in biology, psychology, and sociology, Dr. Harding argues in his new book the brain that loves to laugh That laughter can help children deal with life’s challenges and handle stress better.

It seems that hope and humor are not just the spice of life, but the basic recipe for healthy growth. When we see children laughing, we see the brain’s genius in action: learning, connecting and growing.”

Dr Jacqueline Harding, Director, Tomorrow’s Child and Early Childhood Specialist, Middlesex University

laughter in mind

Dr. Harding argues that laughter is not useless, it is a complex biological phenomenon. It occurs before the neural development of speech, yet it engages a distributed network of brain areas, including motor areas and the prefrontal cortex.

It affects heart rate, respiration and antibody production. It reduces the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine, and increases the ‘pleasure chemicals’ dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. It can strengthen the immune system and improve memory.

Neuroimaging studies show that laughter plays an important role in brain activity, as humor is cognitively demanding and engages neuroplasticity. It challenges the brain to predict and resolve the tension between conflicting ideas, providing a mental workout that enhances creative thinking and activates both working memory and the frontal lobes.

On the other hand, prolonged stress has a negative impact on both physical and mental development. It can interfere with learning, increase stress exposure in adults, suppress immune function, and contribute to disease.

Dr. Harding explains, “I believe that as we continue to grapple with humor – that most interesting of human functions – we should try to overcome any rejection of its trivial nature and let its serious contribution to human education and life in general shine through.”

Hope and Humor in Parenting

In parents and their babies, laughter can increase levels of the happy chemical oxytocin and enhance neural synchrony during parent-child interactions – in other words, creating an emotional bond. These bonds are beneficial for the child and even contribute to reducing parental fatigue and stress.

Research shows that laughter helps develop social skills and emotional intelligence. This doesn’t mean parents need to tell jokes, she suggests, but simple shared play and laughter between parents and children, eye contact, smiling, closeness and joint focus on a task can all foster connection.

“Creative, joyful play does its most brilliant work at the molecular level, especially at times when the human brain is most receptive,” says Dr. Harding. “Spontaneous pleasurable play is an antidote to stress, as it increases the levels of endorphins released by the brain.”

Laughter and Emotional Resilience

Dr Harding suggests that ‘humour and hope’, along with nurturing relationships, can improve a child’s resilience to stressful events.

“The relationship between co-regulation and self-regulation is now well established. Co-regulation refers to the way a child is guided by a caring and supportive adult early in life, so that they have a model to work from for their self-regulation as they mature. The immune system needs a reservoir of positive experiences from which to draw,” explains Dr. Harding.

In a child’s brain, the limbic system, which controls functions such as emotion, behavior, and long-term memory, develops along with the brain’s executive functions that help us plan, evaluate, and make decisions.

She adds, “Therefore, early emotional experiences become embedded in the structure of the brain. Simply put, young children’s emotional state directly influences how they make their way through the world.”

Of course, some children have already experienced extensive trauma. But still, she says, carefully finding gentle ways to introduce joy and hope and reduce the burden on their nervous system can help them feel safe and open to new experiences.

laugh and learn

Dr Harding challenges current protocols for early years education, asking whether there can and should be more room for humour. She advocates integrating humor into educational settings to enhance learning and improve retention of key concepts.

“Humor can reduce cognitive load, making complex information more digestible and memorable. Could it be that hope, humor, and human connection are the missing links we need to refresh the current educational paradigm?” she asks.

Dr. Harding argues that humor encourages human connection and improves the nervous system, creating a better environment for learning.

“Safe relationships and non-stressful play environments promote learning. Curriculum should never take priority over those two fundamental factors.

“Maybe, just maybe, one day the value of hope, humor and human connection will be taken as seriously as it deserves.”