7 yo daughter doesn’t understand jokes?

[MaryLizzie]

Hi

Random message here!

My 7yo essentially doesn’t understand jokes. Not one. Ever. She says they don’t make sense and that jokes are not funny. I have never found one that has made her laugh.

She’s quite a popular child at school but is often quite ‘cold’ towards her peers who seem to really like her, preferring one friend’s attention over the others. She has good communication skills and is only socially awkward with people she doesn’t know or hasn’t seen in a while. She warms up quite quickly though!

The sense of humour thing is really confusing me - she laughs at slapstick (but it is sometimes forced) but outright condemns jokes as pure nonsense and will argue with you when you try to explain why they are funny!! There’s no point even trying puns or sarcasm as she doesn’t get any of it at all!

Anyone had anything like this?

For age purposes, she is eight in three weeks.

My step daughter is nearly 10 and autistic. She has understood humour for 6 years. My youngest is two and laughs at puns!

Is this something to be concerned about?

Thanks!!!

Honestly, I don’t know on that one but would be interested to read the replies.

Thanks! I just don’t know whether it’s something they learn later on or if there’s something wrong! All her friends get jokes. I’m not sure why she doesn’t! We’ve tried explaining jokes to her but she insists that they’re not funny 😂😂

Does she have any other characteristics that concern you? I’ve recently been reading up on ASD in girls and not understanding jokes can be a sign. Might be worth reading up?

So there seems to be a bit of this in my family -

My mum was like this. She was notorious for not getting jokes at all and I remember as a child eg 10 years old desperately trying to explain them to her to absolutely no avail...

She definitely didn't have Asd. She had bad dyslexia which I think can be related because of the language element to jokes, tho obviously most people with dyslexia do understand jokes.

She was incredibly lovely and popular and had a great career (until me), so the not understanding jokes really didn't hold her back.

My 5 year old also isn't seeming to understand jokes, tho she really wants to as she knows they are supposed to be funny. We are starting to think she has the same gap in her sense of humour. It 'feels' very similar to my mum. She finds lots of other things funny but jokes are clearly a total mystery.

However my daughter shows no signs of dyslexia or asd either. She's v sociable and doing very well with her literacy. So I suppose it will be one of those things we just end up considering to be part of her personality.

So I guess I wouldn't worry unless there is something else to worry about, if that makes sense. And if there was anything major you probably have noticed and worried already...?

Hey. Thanks for this. It’s just concerning as my step daughter is autistic and understands humour as does my 2yo yet the middle girl completely doesn’t at all!

I’ve read up on ASD and obviously know quite a bit due to my step daughter she is quite strange friendship wise - she seems to be a very popular girl, kids flock to her and make a big fuss when she arrives at school but she just shrugs it all off. Also some obsessive behaviour in terms of collecting but that seems to be a trait with (male) members of my family!

We’ve tried explaining jokes and she understands how they work but says they are not funny!!!