Analysis of Humor Elements in Illustrated Story Books for Children

Yıl 2017, Sayı: 11, 15 - 27, 25.01.2017

Ayşegül Ergül

Öz

One of the resources that make children
happy are illustrated story books, which should be a part of their life in all
stages of childhood. In addition to many other benefits, illustrated story
books provide children with the opportunity to have fun and start integrating
humor into their lives. That is why the inclusion of humor elements in
children’s books are important in that they make children happy and contribute
to the development of skill of humor use. The aim of this study is to identify
and examine humor elements in internal and external structure of illustrated
story books for children aged between three to six. For this purpose, it’s
investigated in selected story books whether humor elements were used in book
cover, pictures, texts-dialogues and characters. Data were collected using a
form that was developed by the researcher. Humor literature was reviewed while
preparing this form. The form was evaluated by three academics whom were
experts in early childhood education and child literature. A total of 80
illustrated story books were examined. Books were analyzed by the content
analysis technique. Results indicates that the most common humor element in
story books as a whole was absurdity (f=228). This element was followed by
incongruity (f=136), exaggeration (f=128) and surprise (f=66). Parents and
teachers are required to examine closely any external and internal information
about the book. They have to read the whole story and decide whether the themes
are suitable for children and whether illustrations support these themes.
Making children have fun and laugh, humor is a tool that has a great place in
children’s lives and contribute to the development of their mind, although the
content of humor for children and adults may be different. Supporting these
natural tendencies of children – namely, having fun and laughing – by stories
and illustrations in books and plays will allow them to acquire a lot of information
and develop various life skills.

Anahtar Kelimeler

preschool, humor, children

Çocuklar için Yazılmış Resimli Öykü Kitaplarında Yer Alan Mizahi Ögelerin İncelenmesi

Öz

Çocukların mutlu olmasını sağlayan kaynaklardan biri,
yaşamlarında her yaş döneminde yer alması gereken resimli öykü kitaplarıdır.
Resimli öykü kitapları sayısız yararlarının yanı sıra, çocukların eğlenmesi ve
yaşamlarına mizahı katmaya başlamalarını sağlamak için de pek çok fırsat
sunmaktadır. Bu nedenle çocuk kitaplarının mizahi ögeleri kapsama durumu çocukların
hem mutlu olmaları hem de mizahı kullanma becerilerinin gelişimi açısından
önemli görülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, üç-altı yaş çocuklar için yazılmış olan
resimli öykü kitaplarının iç ve dış yapı özelliklerinde yer alan mizahi
ögelerin belirlenmesi ve incelenmesidir. İnceleme kapsamına alınan öykü
kitapları; kapak, görseller, öykü, metin-diyaloglar ve kahramanların
özellikleri gibi başlıklarda mizahi ögeleri içermesi bakımından
değerlendirilmiştir. Veriler
araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen bir form kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Bu form
geliştirilirken mizah alanyazını gözden geçirilmiştir. Geliştirilen form, erken
çocukluk gelişimi ve çocuk edebiyatı alanlarında uzman olan üç akademisyen
tarafından değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırma kapsamında 80 resimli öykü kitabı
içerik analizi tekniği ile değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuçlar incelendiğinde, en sık
karşılaşılan mizahi öge olasılık dışı (f=228) olma durumudur. Bu ögeyi
uyumsuzluk (f=136), abartma (f=128)
ve sürpriz (f=66) olma durumu izlemektedir. Ebeveynler ve öğretmenlerin yapması
gereken, kitapların iç ve dış özelliklerini dikkatlice incelemektir. Öyküler
baştan sona okunmalı, temaların çocuklar için doğru seviyede aktarılıp
aktarılmadığı ve görsellerin bu temaları destekleyici olup olmadığı gözden
geçirilmelidir. Gülmek ve eğlenmek, dolayısıyla yetişkinlerin anlayışından
farklı içerikte de olsa mizah, çocukların yaşamında oldukça yer kaplayan ve
zihinlerini geliştiren bir araçtır. Çocuklarda doğal olarak var olan bu
unsurları gerek kitaplardaki öykü ve görsellerle gerekse de oyunlarla
desteklemek, pek çok bilgiyi çocuklara kazandırmanın yanı sıra çeşitli yaşamsal
becerilerin edinilmesi için de gerekli görülmektedir. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

okulöncesi, mizah, çocuklar

Kaynakça

• Arriaga, P. & Pacheco, C. (2016). Effects of Clown Doctors on child and caregiver anxiety at the entrance to the surgery care unit and separation from caregivers. International Journal of Emotional Education, 8(1), 19-34.
• Berg, R. G., Parr, G., Bradley, L. J. & Berry, J. J. (2009). Humor: A therapeutic intervention for child counseling. Journal of creativity in Mental Health, 4(3), 225-236.
• Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö. A., Karadeniz, Ş. & Demirel, F. (2013). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri. Ankara: Pegem Akademi Yayıncılık.
• Çalık, M. & Sözbilir, M. (2014). The parameters of the content analysis. Educaion and Science, 39(174), 33-38.
• Digney, J. (2013). Lightening the load? Humour and the therapeutic use of daily life events. Relational Child & Youth Care Practice, 26(2), 12-17.
• Dionigi, A. & Canestrari, C. (2016). Clowning in health care settings: The point of view of adults. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 473-488.
• Dowling, J. S. (2014). School-age children talking about humor: Data from focus groups. HUMOR, 27(1), 121-139.
• Guo, J., Zhang, X., Wang, Y. & Xeromeritou, A. (2011). Humour among Chinese and Greek preschool children in relation to cognitive development. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 3(3), 153-170.
• Ho, S. K., Chik, M. P. & Chan, D. W. (2012). A psychometric evaluation on the Chinese version of the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale for Children (C-MSHSC). Child Indicators Research, 5(1), 77-91.
• Hoicka, E. & Akhtar, N. (2011). Preschoolers joke with jokers, but correct foreigners. Developmental Science, 14, 848–858.
• Hoicka, E. & Akhtar, N. (2012). Early humour production. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 30(4), 586-603.
• Hsieh, H. F. & Shannon, S. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15, 1277-1288.
• Fitzgerald, K. L. & Craig-Unkefer, L. (2008). Promoting humor with prekindergarten children with and without language impairments in classroom settings. Young Exceptional Children, 11(4), 13-25.
• Fettig, A., Schultz, T. R. & Ostrosky, M. M. (2015). Storybooks and beyond teaching problem solving skills in early childhood classrooms. Young Exceptional Children, 19(3), 18-31.
• Fox, C. L., Hunter, S. C. & Jones, S. E. (2016). Children's humor types and psychosocial adjustment. Personality and Individual Differences, 89, 86-91.
• Ford, K., Courtney-Pratt, H., Tesch, L. & Johnson, C. (2013). More than just clowns-clown doctor rounds and their impact for children, families and staff. Journal of Child Health Care, 18(3), 286–296.
• Kuiper, N. A. & Leite, C. (2010). Personality impressions associated with four distinct humor styles. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 115-122.
• Loizou, E. (2005). Humour: A different kind of play. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 13(2), 97-109.
• Mireault, G., Crockenberg, S., Sparrow, J., Pettinato, C., Woodard, K. & Malzac, K. (2014). Social looking, social referencing, and humor perception in 6 and 12-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 37, 536–545.
• Mireault, G., Poutre, M., Sargent-Hier, M., Dias, C., Perdue, B. & Myrick, A. (2012). Humor perception and creation between parents and 3- to 6-month old infants. Infant and Child Development, 21, 338–347.
• Mireault, G., Sparrow, J., Poutre, M., Perdue, B. & Macke, L. (2012). Infant humor perception from 3- to 6-months and attachment at one year. Infant Behavior and Development, 35, 797–802.
• Ostrosky, M. M., Mouzourou, C., Dorsey, E. A., Favazza, P. C. & Leboeuf, L. M. (2015). Pick a book, any book: Using children’s books to support positive attitudes toward peers with disabilities. Young Exceptional Children, 18(1), 30-43.
• Puche-Navarro, R. (2009). From implicit to explicit representation in children’s response to pictorial humor. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33(6), 543–555.
• Salmela, M. Salanterä, S. Ruotsalainen, T. & Aronen, T., E. (2010). Coping strategies for hospital-related fears in pre-school-aged children. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 46, 108–114. jpc_1647
• Šeďová, K. (2013). Pupils’ humour directed at teachers: its types and functions. Educational Studies, 39(5), 522-534.
• Semrud-Clikeman, M. & Glass, K. (2010). The relation of humor and child development: Social, adaptive, and emotional aspects. Journal of Child Neurology, 25(10), 1248-1260.
• Serafini, F. & Coles, R. (2015). Humor in Children's Picture Books. The Reading Teacher, 68(8), 636-638.
• Snell, E. K., Hindman, A. H. & Wasik, B. A. (2015). How Can Book Reading Close the Word Gap? Five Key Practices from Research. The Reading Teacher, 68(7), 560-571.
• Southam, M. (2005). Humor development: An important cognitive and social skill in the growing child. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 25(1-2), 105-117.
• Spencer, E. J., Goldstein, H. & Kaminski, R. (2012). Teaching vocabulary in storybooks: Embedding explicit vocabulary instruction for young children. Young Exceptional Children, 19, 128–140.
• Tadesse, S. & Washington, P. (2013). Book ownership and young children's learning. Childhood Education, 89(3), 165-172.
• Tener, D., Lev-Wiesel, R., Franco, N. L. & Ofir, S. (2010). Laughing through this pain: medical clowning during examination of sexually abused children: an innovative approach. Journal of child sexual abuse, 19(2), 128-140.
• Vrticka, P., Black, J. M. & Reiss, A. L. (2013). The neural basis of humour processing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(12), 860-868.
• Wasik, B. A. & Hindman, A. H. (2014). Understanding the active ingredients in an effective preschool vocabulary intervention: An exploratory study of teacher and child talk during book reading. Early Education and Development, 25(7), 1035-1056.