Young Children’s Humorous Stories: A Force for Positive Emotions

Abstract

This chapter will explore the educational potential of children’s humorous stories (verbal and visual narratives) through the framework of the Theory of the Absurd and the Empowerment Theory. Previous studies exploring young children’s humor focus on the funny stories children produce verbally or visually employing a variety of stimuli. Findings suggest that providing children with the opportunity to create a humorous story generates the context for multiple learning skills to be developed and assessed. Specifically, linguistic and cognitive processes are elaborated (e.g. narrative development, divergent thinking) as well as socio-emotional abilities (e.g. power expression, positive emotions, violation of expectations). Using and understanding humor is a valued social skill and humor emerges from social interaction. Therefore, developing a sense of humor through stories has an important role in growing up.