A child’s laugh might be doing a lot more than brightening the room.

New research highlighted by early childhood expert Dr Jacqueline Harding says laughter and play support healthy brain growth, emotional well-being and social bonding in children. Dr Harding, of Middlesex University in northwest London, makes the case in her new book, The Brain That Loves to Laugh.

“Hope and humor, it seems, are not just the seasoning of life, but foundational to a recipe for healthy development,” Dr Harding said.

“When we see children laugh, we witness the brilliance of the brain in action: learning, connecting, and growing.”

Dr Harding said laughter comes before the neural development of speech and engages “a distributed network of brain regions, including motor areas and the prefrontal cortex”.

She said laughter also “influences heart rate, respiration and production of antibodies”.

“It decreases the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine, and increases ‘happiness chemicals’ dopamine, serotonin and endorphins.

“It can strengthen the immune system and improve memory.

“Neuroimaging studies suggest that laughter plays a significant role in brain activity, as humor is cognitively demanding and engages neuro-plasticity.

“It challenges the brain to predict and resolve tension between conflicting ideas, providing a mental workout that enhances creative thought and activates both the working memory and frontal lobes.

“On the other hand, prolonged stress negatively affects both physical and mental development. It can impair learning, increase adult stress risk, suppress immune function, and contribute to illness.”

Dr Harding said laughter between parents and children can also strengthen emotional bonds.

“In parents and their children, laughter can boost the levels of happy chemical oxytocin and enhance neural synchrony during parent-child interactions, in other words, build emotional bonds,” she said.

“These bonds are beneficial to the child and even contribute to a reduction in parental burnout and stress.”

She said parents do not need to rely on jokes, and that shared play and laughter with eye contact, smiles and close proximity can foster connection.

“Creative, happy play does its most brilliant work at a molecular level, especially at a time when the human brain is at its most receptive,” Dr Harding said.

“Spontaneous joyful play is an antidote to stress, as it increases levels of endorphins released by the brain.”

Dr Harding said “humor and hope” can also improve a child’s resilience to stressful events.

“The link between co-regulation and self-regulation is now well established. Co-regulation means the way in which the baby is guided by a caring and supportive adult early in life, so that they have a working model to draw upon for their own self-regulation as they mature,” she said.

“The immune system needs a store of positive experiences from which to draw.”

Her studies found the limbic system in a child’s brain develops alongside the executive functions that help people plan, evaluate and make decisions.

“Stated simply, the emotional state of young children directly influences how they navigate their way through the world,” Dr Harding said.

She said gentle ways of introducing joy and hope, and easing pressure on a child’s nervous system, can help youngsters who have already experienced extensive trauma.

Dr Harding also advocates bringing humor into education to reduce cognitive load, make complex information easier to process and “refresh the current educational paradigm”.

“Maybe, just maybe, one day the value of hope, humor, and human connection will be taken as seriously as it deserves.”

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