Laughter is the best medicine, they say. And what is even better than hearing your tiny bundle of joy laughing for the first time! It is, no doubt, the favorite developmental milestone that your baby achieves. By now, you might be wondering, “When do babies start laughing? “. Well, you may want to work on new silly faces, and jump into this article, as we take a sneak peek at ways to keep your baby laughing!
When To Expect The First Laugh?
So, you’re going about doing the normal baby duties one day when you suddenly hear your baby letting out a cute laugh! And surely your heart fills up with love and joy. If you haven’t yet witnessed this glorious moment, you would be asking yourself, “When do babies start laughing? “
Social smile aka your baby’s first deliberate smile appears around 6-8 weeks. Most newborn babies smile during their slumber, or often when they are passing gas. After 2 months of restless days and tiring sleepless nights, this toothless smile is nothing but a mood lift.
Most babies have their first laugh around 4 months of age. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Some babies may achieve this milestone earlier and others a bit later. Surely, whenever your ears hear the sweet sound of that soft laugh or coo, there’s no going back! All you would want if to keep on hearing it again and again.
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Significance Of Your Favorite Laugh
Your babies giggle instantly becomes your most favorite melody. And why shouldn’t it be? Maybe you’ve been looking forward to this day since you first welcomed your ray of sunshine.
Learning how to laugh is surely an important and significant part of your child’s growth as it is another step towards their communication with you. It shows that your baby is active and intrigued by your presence. It also means that their brain is developing normally as is required at their age.
Smiling and laughing means that your baby is figuring out human behaviors. They are better adapting to their surroundings. They also are getting a hold of how to get your attention and their communication skills are developing smoothly.
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What Milestones Does Your Baby Achieve Before Laughing?
So in response to your question, “When do babies start laughing?”, we have figured out that the answer to that is around 4 months of age. But which other milestones does your baby climb on the ladder of growth and development before learning how to laugh?
Laughing is described as generating sounds, mostly in response to a happy or positive stimulus. So before your baby can let out a proper, but surely adorable laugh, they may be able to make noises like cooing or gurgling. These wonderful sounds may be heard by you anywhere from around 6 weeks to 3 months.
It is surely progress, starting from random sighs and sounds, to coos and gurgles directed at you, objects, or even pets.
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How To Make Your Baby Laugh?
After successfully answering the question, “When do babies start laughing? “, the next question that pops up is, “How to make your baby laugh? “
The laughter of your baby is nothing less than addictive. Once your baby has learned how to laugh, their giggle becomes the highlight of your day! And now, you might want to mount on the amazing quest of finding ways in keeping your toddler amused.
Well, look no further, as we have summed up a few ways in which your baby and, definitely you, will be having the best time laughing together.
Making All Sorts Of Noises
Laughter is a means of communication. And if you want your baby bear laughing their heart out, you should be able to establish a safe space for communicating with them. This includes having a baby talk with them, which includes babbling and cooing with them.
Babies have been found to be more responsive to auditory stimuli. You may want to start working on making funny noises, popping sounds, blowing a kiss, or just having a silly, but cute, baby talk.
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Playtime!
What’s a better tactic to set those giggles into motion than by engaging in a fun play date. You can start by maintaining good eye contact. This is important as you want your baby to be actively engaged and ready for action too!
Peek-a-boo is an all-time favorite game, both among kids and adults. And it’s the best and easiest way to get your baby boo laughing.
One thing to remember here is that your baby may not respond to this hide and seek game before 6 months of age. This is because ‘object permanence’, that is the ability to understand that there is something present even when you can’t see it, develops around 4-6 months of age.
Playtime with your baby boy only serves as a key to that adorable laughter, it also strengthens the bond you two share. And in the long run, it is the best thing for your baby’s happy and healthy growth.
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Tickle And Touch
Nothing makes your baby laugh their belly out than tickling their cute baby feet and tummy too! You may want to be gentle as they have very sensitive skin. Apart from tickling, gently touching or kissing them on their hands or feet, and even blowing raspberries on their tummy can make them laugh like anything.
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What To Do If Your Baby Hasn’t Started Laughing?
By now we have safely answered the question, “When does your baby start laughing? “. But what happens if your baby hasn’t started laughing, even after 6 months of age.
You may want to talk to your doctor about the developmental progress of your child. Your doctor would most likely prove into your child’s growth, asking if they have attained other milestones yet or not.
If, in any case, your doctor sees any developmental delay, they may advise further evaluation of your baby. There are therapies available that engage your child and help them to keep pace with other children of their age.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHY DO BABIES LAUGH AND SMILE?
After getting to know about when do babies start laughing, you may be eager to know why do they laugh or smile. To sum up, laughing or smiling is an important milestone that predicts normal brain development. So, be happy. The evolving communication skills are on track. Most importantly, your little bundle is growing up and figuring human behavior. He is a cute attention seeker and seeks your smiles back
WHAT ARE THE TIPS TO FOLLOW BEFORE YOU TRY TO MAKE YOUR BABY LAUGH?
- Don’t go for stimulation overload. In short, if the baby is not in the mood, don’t try for more time. Leave him until he feels to laugh. The laughing drive can work maximum only then.
- Your little baby has its own little world. Don’t peek so much into it to make him smile and laugh.
- Give premature babies some more time. To clarify, such babies need extra weeks or months to grin. As a general rule the more premature your baby is, the more time it will take to carry such milestones.
- Lastly, care for babies’ naps, exercise or downtime. They can’t raise cheeks for you if hungry, tired or restless.
WHAT STEPS DOES THIS LAUGHING IN BABIES TAKE?
From the little chuckles to full belly laughter, what actually happens in babies” head is inspiring to know. When do babies start laughing and how do they do so is a cute story of mind to know.
At the age of 6 to 8 weeks, when baby gives an anticipatory smile, this process of continued smiling goes on. In short, these facial expressions are discrete emotions. And, are innate. These chuckles at few early weeks of life depict the reflection of inner emotions.
As babies age, their vision widens. They take the whole face in their gaze rather than just eyes. To sum up, this is a process of positive associations of your angel with you.
Furthermore, after more than 4 months of age, mouth-open smiles with pinched-eyes are playful. And, simpler smiles with no cheek raising or pinched-eyes are cautionary. So, try to differentiate between these two.
When reaching to 6 months of life, babies do “smile exchanges”. This is a sophisticated form of communication that coordinate their gaze with someone. A process called ‘”joint attention”.
Around 9 months, levels of anticipatory smiling predict social competence.
Finally, around 30 months or more, there has been seen an urge to the inclination to engage with other people in big babies.
HOW TO MAKE MY BABY LAUGH, IF HE DOESN'T LAUGH AFTER A WHOLE ONE YEAR?
You are tired to think of when do babies start laughing. Hands down! You don’t need to worry if your baby isn’t smiling or laughing at one year of age. There are a lot more ways you can create to make your baby giggle.
PEEK-A-BOO
The first-ever, best, yet the simple way you can go for, to entice a 1-year-old to laugh. But, be sure they know you well first. You might scare them in such case. So, if you do peek-a-boo, you can generate a sparkle of anticipation gleam in the eye. And, stop if he stops to laugh to avoid stimulation overload.
BE A GOOD PLAYMATE
You are the best mate to your baby. Try to get involved in him. Make him see the mother-nature and, share the stories of swinging flowers and dancing trees to see the sparkle of a laugh. Share the tales of three stooges. If he doesn’t laugh now, then when? On the other side, be as enthusiastic as he shares his cute little stories.
MAKE FUNNY NOISES AND SILLY GESTURES
The cracky meow or melodious Ku-ku will work for you. And, the smooches. Put pants on the head. Or, throw popcorns in air. Or, laugh out hard yourself. You can see the cute little cheeks blushing out now.