Young Children's Use of Laughter After Transgressions

Abstract

Can very young children deploy laughter interactionally? Using data from video recordings of 52 interactions between six mothers and their young children, this article examines one particular kind of sequence in which interactionally ordered child laughter occurs. In that sequence, the young child commits some kind of potential transgression (e.g., breaking wind, standing on objects on the floor, or playing in a proscribed location). The child's mother then draws attention to the potential transgression in some way (e.g., by admonishing the child, requesting a change to the child's behavior, issuing a particular kind of child-directed gaze), thus treating the child's action as constituting a transgression. At some point following the potential transgression, the child laughs. What is shown is that even young children can fit their laughter to the ongoing interactional sequence. It is argued that the child's laughter provides for a display of affiliation from the mother.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Traci Walker and the anonymous reviewers for comments on the first draft of this article.