Over the years, I have earned myself a reputation for telling jokes to the kids at the meeting area. To some the jokes may seem quite droll, however, this is to serve a few functions. To build rapport, earn trust and gain an understanding of our students. One way to Build rapport with anyone is through humour, not too much, not too little and just the right kind. It’s important to create a relaxed and comfortable environment quickly as our students will be more likely to be open to learning. Also, making sure that the delivery of content, being ‘on the same level’ as the kids, is imperative, or they’ll be lost, or worse they’ll never be there to start. Treating them too young, may seem patronising, too old, and the reaction might be ‘I have a Dog!’.

Telling jokes, and having the kids tell jokes back helps gauge where their humour is and usually gives a pretty good indication of where they’re at Cognitively and Emotionally. Some of the jokes I tell at the meeting area are funny (well, that’s what I tell myself), others not so funny, but then this would generally depend on the age of the child. I noticed that I could tell the same joke to a different age group and get a completely different response, may be better, or worse! Whether they get the joke to start with, or genuinely laugh at the jokes, roll their eyes, or vaguely giggle with a ‘knowing glance’, often indicates what ‘level’ they’re on and helps determine how the lesson is approached. And when done accurately, this helps to earn and build trust.

The younger kids (3-4yrs) usually have the most ridiculous, nonsensical jokes. This age tends to react more to visual and physical/slapstick humour. (Price 2007)  Although, sometimes they understand basic word-play and riddles.The most common joke for this age group seems to be the classic ‘Knock knock’ joke. This may be an indictment of their understanding of the world in a very defined way, having not developed language skills, understanding double meanings, amongst other things. Black is black, white is white with very few, if any, shades of grey in between (and certainly not 50!).

On a chair-lift ride with older kids, the 4-year-old might make up a joke that combines the previous 2 jokes they’ve heard, and only tell it so they feel like they are part of the group, which they are, just on a different level. This kind of mixing and matching of components, without knowing the rules, or structure, is an element of ‘Egocentrism’, where the child doesn’t know the rules or how to apply them but thinks they do.

From my experience, By the time kids get a little older, they usually have a pretty good understanding of basic (or in some cases, complex) word play, which requires understanding context, multiple word meanings, contradictions, metaphors and ambiguity. (Stern, 2010) And the older they get the more sophisticated the joke. Or, they’ll rip the joke to pieces. I once got in to an Existential discussion with a 10-year-old after I told the ‘Why did the dinosaur cross the road?’ joke. ‘Chickens are not invented,’ she said, ‘they evolve and roads are invented, but they didn’t exist because there weren’t people then.’ And so it went. Needless to say, once I had this discussion I re-thought my approach!

References

Price, M. 2007 ‘The Joke’s in you’, American Psychologist Assosciation                          Stern, V. 2010  ‘Jokes crack open brain connectivity in Autism’, SFARI (Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative), viewed 10 August 2014

Here is a selection of jokes I have heard through the years, by no means is this ALL of them.

If you have any to add, please, feel free to post in the comments, send me an e-mail.

What do you get when you cross an elephant with a fish?
Swimming trunks!
Why did the cow cross the road?
He wanted to go to the moo-vies!
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get to the other side!
Why did the turkey cross the road?
It was the chickens day off!
Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
Chickens weren’t invented then!
Why did the whale cross the ocean?
To get to the other tide!
Why did the chicken cross the park?
To get to the other slide!
Why did the possum cross the road?
He wanted to visit his flat-mate!
What do you call cheese that’s not yours?
Nacho Cheese (Not your cheese)
Have you heard the joke about the pizza?
Nah, I better not. It’s too cheesy
Have you heard the joke about the Nachos?
Nah, I better not. It’s too corny.
Have you heard the joke about the wall?
Nah, better not. You won’t get over it.
Have you heard the joke about the butter?
Nah, better not. You’ll just spread it.
What kind of cheese do you use to disguise a horse?
Mascapone. (Mask-a-pony)
What kind of cheese do you use to coax a bear out of its’ cave?
Camembert. (Come-on-bear)
What did the cheese say when it looked in the mirror?
Haloumi. (Hello-me)
Why did the toilet roll down the hill?
To get to the bottom!
What’s red and sits in the corner?
A very naughty strawberry!

What’s the laziest mountain in the world?                                                                      Mt Everest!