Story
These quotes are listed alphabetically by author and then date published. They are included here because, in my opinion, they can spark important reflection. Click on a quote image for further discussion.
Alex Gillespie Enrico Gnaulati Temple Grandin Stanley I. Greenspan Paul E. McGhee Barry M. Prizant
Stuart G. Shanker Steve Silberman
PAUL E. MCGHEE - Continued...
”In the most common occurrence of Stage 2 humor, children simply give names to objects or events that they know to be incorrect. Thus, a child may find it endlessly amusing to call a dog a cat, a hand a foot, an eye a nose, and so forth.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 69.
”Having a sense of mastery over a word seems to be the critical factor in determining when a child begins to find it funny to change names of objects: that is, once the child learns the correct name for an object or part of the body, a playful frame of mind may lead to calling it every word but the rignt word.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. pp. 69.
”Typically, children maintain some enjoyment of name-change humor until the late preschool years.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 69.
”Stages 2 and 3 differ with respect to such humor, however, in that joking in the former is likely to take the form of substituting an incorrect real word for the correct real word, whereas joking in the latter may also include the substitution of nonsense words for the correct word.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 69.
”The fact that the Stage 2 child uses verbal labels readily understood by other children or adults provides for the beginnings of social influence on both the production and the enjoyment of humor. From the very beginning, however, children differ widely in the extent to which they seek social outlets for their humor. Most children prefer to share humorous fantasy play with others once they discover the mutual enjoyment to be derived from such sharing. Others may prefer to restrict their humorous creations to their own imaginations.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 70.
”Stage 3 humor is more complex than that of Stage 2, in that many different characteristics may be involved (even though the child has difficulty keeping all these characteristics in mind at once). The number of characteristic that may enter into the humorous depiction of an object is limited only by the number of different ones that define the concept formed with respect to that object.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 72.
”Only by Stage 4 can a child step beyond the appearances of things and begin to think in a logical manner about what could and could not happen, and why. When asked to explain why such an event is funny, the preschooler cannot advance geyond a purely descriptive account and indicate why the situation described makes it funny.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. pp. 74-75.
”A new form of language play develops during Stage 3 in addition to simple name substitutions. Both repetitious rhyming of words and the creation of nonsense words are common sources of humor during the three- to six-year period.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 75.
”Much adult humor has as its basis the fact that two or more meanings are applicable to a particular key word in a joke or story. Puns are a classic example of this form of humor. In order to appreciate the humor in puns, a child must be simultaneously aware of the two meanings and realize that the obvious one provides for a normal set of circumstances, whereas the less probable one creates some sort of incongruous situation.”
McGhee, Paul E. (1979) Humor. W. H. Freeman and Company: San Francisco, California. p. 76.
