Laughter and Language Acquisition by Pre-School Children: Making Use of Tickle Rhymes

Laughter and Language Acquisition by Pre-School Children: Making Use of Tickle Rhymes

Lalit Kishore

Abstract

For the pre-school children (N=30; 4-5 years) five tickle rhymes were used for two weeks to sing and create laughter through the under arm tickling. The intervention was undertaken to revive tickle rhymes and see their effect on children. It was observed that the tickle rhymes resulted into significantly enhanced positive talk about the teacher at home by the children (p≤0.05, d.f.= 2). The objectives of the intervention cum action research were: (i) To collate, create and use tickle rhymes for the pre-school children; (ii) To study the feedback and comments from the parents for the intervention. The intervention and subsequent reflection resulted into institutionalization of tickle rhymes for the entrant pre-school children.

Keywords: Tickle rhymes; laughter therapy, positive talk.