This book provides a wide spectrum of research on young children’s humor and illuminates the depth and complexity of humor development in children from birth through age 8 and beyond. It highlights the work of pioneers in young children’s humor research including Paul McGhee, Doris Bergen, and Vasu Reddy. Presenting a variety of new perspectives, the book examines such issues as play, humor, laughing and pleasure within the context of learning and development. It looks at humor, wordplay and cartoons that can be used as educational tools in the classroom. Finally, it provides explorations of humor within a cultural and spiritual context. The book presents diverse and creative methods to study humor and provides practical implications for adults working with children. The book offers a powerful springboard for moving research and practice toward a deeper understanding of young children’s humor as an integral and meaningful component of early development and learning.

Humor gets very little respect! While references to the importance of having a sense of humor are liberally sprinkled throughout the popular media, and it is usually mentioned as one of the qualities of effective employees, it is rare to find purposeful humor practice. Humor is without a doubt the one quality that most of us agree is needed in life. However, it is rare to find serious applications on the benefits of applying humor in everyday life and in our world of work. When the federal government tried to incorporate humor into a staff development program of a federal agency, there was an outcry. It seems that humor was thought to be a waste of taxpayer money, and the program was axed. The purpose of Using Humor to Maximize Living is to affirm, sustain, and encourage people in the practice of humor not only as a personal tool to optimize a healthy life style, but also to maximize the benefits of humor in everyday life. Check out the research that includes a review on the use of humor to nurture creativity, to increase the capacity for memory retention, to support an optimal work environment, and to build safe communities that reflect the relational trust necessary for maximizing living.

Why are things funny? How has humor changed over the centuries? How can humor be a political force? Featuring expert authors from across the globe, The Languages of Humor discusses three main types of humour: verbal, visual, and physical. Despite the differences between them, all have a common purpose, showing us in different ways the reality that we live in, and how we can reflect on that reality. To this end, the book shows how humor has been used to address such topics as the Holocaust and the Soviet Union, and why it has been controversial in cases including Charlie Hebdo. The Languages of Humor explores a subject that is of interest in a wide range of intellectual disciplines including sociology, psychology, communication, philosophy, history, social sciences, linguistics, computer science, literature, theatre, education, and cultural studies. This volume features contributions from world-leading academics, some of who have professional backgrounds in this field. This unique research-led book, which includes over 20 illustrations, offers a top-down analysis of humor studies.

The evidence is now in! Humor and laughter are good medicine. The companion to this book, Humor: The Lighter Path to Resilience and Health (2010, also published by AuthorHouse) discusses the exciting new research supporting the long-held claim that laughter is the best medicine. Humor as Survival Training for a Stressed-Out Worldshows how to get these benefits of humor into your own life. It contains the first-ever humor skills training program that has evidence from multiple countries documenting its effectiveness in boosting your sense of humor and learning to use humor to cope with the stress in your life. No other program for improving your sense of humor can make this claim. The basic idea is to build key foundation humor skills on your good dayswhen youre in a good mood. While strengthening one habit/skill at a time, you dont extend these skills to daily stressors until the habits are well developed (otherwise, your sense of humor abandons you when youre under stress). The 7 Humor Habit Program first builds the habit of becoming a more playful person in general (humor is a form of mental play), and then focuses onverbal humor skills, finding humor in everyday life, laughing at yourself and other key humor skills. Studies in the USA, Switzerland, Australia and Germany have confirmed the effectiveness of this program in boosting your sense of humor. Evidence also shows that it improves your daily mood, boosts optimism and improves your ability to cope with stress. There is even evidence that the 7 Humor Habits Program is an effective tool in reducing clinical depression and anxiety. It has been shown to be effective for all ages, from college students to seniors in their eighties. So its never too late to improve your own sense of humor.

"Noses are Red" will show what is necessary at each stage of your child's development for humor to flourish. It will also encourage and help you give this gift to your child.

They have strong values—faith, family, tolerance, intelligence, and altruism among them. But, contrary to what one might guess, these people are not America's sage elders. This is the Millennial Generation. Born between 1982 and 2000, the oldest among them today are entering their 20s or in their teen years. They aim to rebel against society by cleaning it up, returning to old-fashioned values and relationships. Author Verhaagen describes why, nonetheless, parents are feeling more anxious and frazzled than ever before, even as they are faced with the task of raising what some predict will be our next hero generation. Verhaagen explains how research shows adults can help keep these young people on a positive path, stoke their ideals, and help them be resilient when the inevitable mistakes and obstacles arise. The Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers are parenting this new crew, aiming to ground them and instill great hope for the future. But Millennials face challenges greater than any generation faced before them. Many spend all or part of their childhood without a father in the home. Technology, including the Internet, is exposing them to adult material at increasingly young ages. They are subject to violent images that are more common than ever before in movies, television, and games. So parents still need to provide guidance. Verhaagen aims to help parents with research and advice, including how to teach determination, problem-solving, emotional smarts, and resilience. His text includes vignettes and his personal experience as a psychotherapist/father.

What is humor exactly? How do you use it to maximize learning? If it is so important, why is it rarely mentioned in teacher preparation without some clues for finding and using it? The purpose of this book is to affirm, sustain, and encourage educators in the practice of humor not only as a personal tool to optimize a healthy lifestyle, but to maximize the benefits of humor in education. These benefits include current research-based data on the use of humor to nurture creativity, to increase the capacity for memory retention, to support an optimal learning environment and to build safe communities that reflect the relational trust necessary for collaborative learning. An environment of fun is an indicator of a culture of trust. Each chapter of this book includes a study group format and powerful practice ideas for leaders. These tools can facilitate creative data analysis for educational leaders interested in understanding the relatively new field of positive psychology and how it can contribute to a joyful learning environment that promotes collaborative relationships.

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.