My team developed the Early Humour Survey (2021) to determine when children first understand humour. We surveyed 219 parents of children from birth to 47 months. We found some children appreciate humour by one month, and children started to appreciate humour by two months on average. This is much younger than when children start to understand words, which begins as early as six months. Sharing humour with infants may then be one of the earliest ways to communicate with them. It is also a very happy, positive way to do so!
This was something that happened often, with most children having appreciated humour within the last two hours. This suggests parents share humour with their children throughout the day.
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