What makes babies laugh?
bbc.com
bbc.com
Of course the important thing that is not mentioned explicitly is that it makes adults, especially parents, happy and it rewards them, so laughter becomes a bonding experience. Parents like to hear their baby laugh, they make the baby laugh, they are happy and baby is happy. And as a result baby bonded with their caregiver.
I don't remember when my daughter made her first steps on her own, or the moment she said "daddy", but I remember vividly the context when she belly laughed for the first time. For whatever reason that was a very wonderful and memorable moment that I hope I'll never forget.
He was pointing to colours and my job was to say it out loud. At one point, I deliberately called black as "green" and he instinctively skipped to the next color but quickly did a double take and jumped back to the previous one, thinking he misheard it. I repeated "green" and he looked at me and started laughing (I was expressionless).
Mind, this was the first time I had done something like this in any context. And he got it! It was a joke.
Now, at about 5, he gets puns and sarcasm is hit'n'miss. As a side-note, the whole thing as to how his appreciation for jokes is evolving is interesting. But the most important thing for me as a parent is enjoying these moments of laughter.
One thing I tried as an experiment turned into something good. When a baby falls, bumps their head, hits themselves in the face (remember: no motor control), their first impulse is to scream. Sort of.
I noticed that when ours falls, sometimes he looks at us before reacting almost as if he's waiting for a clue on how to react. I clap and cheer and instead of freaking out, he just smiles and goes back to what he was doing.
This only seems to work when surprise and not pain is the cause. If he bonks his head, it's still the end of the world. ;)
In contrast. Teacher panicking over a bee landing on my arm? And now I'm uncomfortable with bees and its ilk.
Of course, it could also be that I have some sort of mental illness.
I hope this is just confusion through the lens of the BBC, but... It sounds like they had people self-report when they observed babies laughing, and found that babies laugh when being observed?
A baby that sees elders consistently and intently look at paper, fold it carefully, put it in important places, then all of a sudden sees one purposefully break it would give a jolt.
Either way, I love that video and have wondered what else might give a baby a similar experience.