Joke telling, humor creation, and humor recall in children with and without hearing loss

Abstract

AbstractChildren with and without hearing loss were compared on their joke-telling and humor-related oral narrative skills. They were asked to tell a joke, create a funny story, and describe a funny movie they had seen. The ability to use humor in language creatively or in recall, the appropriate use of time reference in verbs, and the sequencing of story schema are advanced language skills for children. The conceptual and language skills of humor could be impacted if children do not hear some of the subtleties of language. Results revealed children with hearing loss used shorter and less complex utterances in jokes. They were significantly more likely to produce knock-knock jokes than other types such as riddles, and the knock-knock jokes were at a pre-joke stage. Children with hearing loss also produced funny stories that were less complex. They scored lower on story structure, total narrative ability, and Applebee's story schema. They were less likely to report bathroom humor as the funny part of a joke, story, or movie. This suggests that some aspects of the development of verbal humor may be impacted by hearing loss even among children mainstreamed in regular schools.