The Laugh Lab: Talk with Nikki Jecks

Join this talk to explore what developmental science has discovered about humour in the first year of life: when it appears, how it changes, and why it matters far beyond the giggle.
Babies are funnier than we give them credit for. Long before they say their first word or take their first step, infants are already doing something quietly extraordinary: trying to make people laugh. They pull toys away just as you reach for them. They put things on their heads. They make faces they know will get a reaction, then watch your face to see if it worked.But infant humour is more than charming behaviour. It turns out that what makes a baby laugh – and what a baby does to make you laugh – is one of the most revealing windows we have into the developing brain. Each joke, each tease, each bit of deliberate silliness is evidence of something profound happening: the emergence of expectations, the beginnings of social understanding, and the earliest hints of a capacity that won’t fully mature for years – the ability to model another person’s mind.This talk explores what developmental science has discovered about humour in the first year of life: when it appears, how it changes, and why it matters far beyond the giggle.