The Development of Laughing and Smiling in Nursery School Children

86 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children were observed to evaluate the frequency of occurrence and conditions surrounding laughing and smiling. The following categories were used to classify events: whether it co-occurred with laughter or smiling; whether it was produced, responded to, or produced and responded to by the target child; whether it was judged an accidental or intentional attempt at humor; whether it was positive, negative, or neutral in intent; whether it was a verbal, motor, or verbal-motor event; and whether it occurred when the child was engaged in solitary, peer-parallel or peer cooperative play. An evaluation of 1,847 events indicated: (a) no differences between boys and girls in any category; (b) more events defined by smiling than by laughing; (c) an increase in laugh events and a decrease in smile events over age; (d) differences in event pattens co-occurring with laughing and smiling; and (e) 95% of events occurred in the presence of other children or adults. Results were interpreted as supporting interpersonal theories of laughing and smiling and as calling into question theories stressing intrapersonal factors.