What's So Funny?

With ready-to-use lessons and strategies, What’s So Funny?: Humor-Based Activities for Social Skill Development provides readers with tools to help their clients improve their emotional intelligence through humor. Occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, special educators, behavior therapists, and caregivers will benefit from the implementation of these strategies.

What’s So Funny? contains a curriculum of more than 50 activities that emphasize two main ideas. The first is that humor (linguistic or physical) can be taught to many individuals with autism spectrum disorder or other disorders through explicit instruction, exposure to various types of humor, and embracing the individual’s preferred sense of humor. The second is that humorous activities can be used to increase social engagement, which can sometimes be a challenge for those with developmental disabilities.

What’s So Funny? includes activities essential for individuals who:

• Appear to have a very limited concept or basic developmental level of humor
• Need to improve their understanding of socially appropriate humor
• Lack understanding of appropriate times to use humor
• Are nonverbal, have limited expressive communication skills, or use augmentative communication devices
• Have a difficult time initiating social interactions with their peers