Question: Why do you enjoy making babies laugh?

Caspar Addyman answered on 15 Mar 2011:

Because I think that humour and laughter is one of the best ways of communicating with someone. And that when someone laughs with you it shows that you both understand something the joke. you both are surprised and delighted by something unexpected .
We can’t ask babies what they are thinking because firstly they won’t understand us and secondly they can’t answer even if they want to. They don’t yet know how to speak. But from just a few months old they can smile and laugh. And that is their best way of telling us that they really like something or they find it surprising.

It will be different things for different age babies. Tiny babies might just really like playing Peek-a-boo while older babies love it when things fall down. (towers of blocks, people, food from their plates onto the floor.)

The tiny babies are genuinely surprised when you reappear from behind your hands.. It’s a bit of a shock to them but it is not a nasty shock..
The older babies are starting to understand something about gravity and that all things fall to the floor. But they like to keep making sure.

So babies’ laughter is a brilliant way for us to get an understanding of what they know at different ages.

Does that answer make sense? I’d be interested to know because my sister and I are writing a book about this and we want to be sure we explain it properly.