Six year old's laugh almost always fake... Why?

[SarahBear]

Does anyone else have a kid whose laugh is almost always fake? When Violet was a toddler and discovered that laughter elicited a positive reaction from people, she started doing fake laughter to get people's attention. The fakeness always annoyed me, but I assumed she'd grow out of it. Well it never did go away and then when her brother was a toddler, she noticed his behavior got people's attention, so she imitated him while doing fake laughter. People were not impressed. She did eventually stop imitating her younger brother, but she still does fake laughter and doesn't even seem to realize that it's fake or understand why it doesn't get a positive response. I hardly ever hear her laugh for real. She did recently (within last couple weeks, probably), but I can't remember what she was laughing at... it was something we were doing together though. It was a typical behavior the last time I asked on here, but she's quite a bit older now... Anyone else's kid do this?

 

[AngelUK]

I have no personal experience but it sounds to me that it ties in with other things you have mentioned about Violet and your wondering if she might be on the spectrum. I think she fake laughs exactly for the reason you have listed, to get a reaction and maybe just doesn't realise or understand that it is annoying. I am no expert of course so this is just my thought.

 

[Eleanor ace]

My DS (7) has a fake laugh, I never really notice it except when DH brings it up as it really annoys him for some reason! DS is quite self-conscious and I think for him its related to that, nothing more significant. I think he does it less now than he did a year or so ago and he does his real laugh when he's actually amused more often than not.

 

[whatwillbex]

Hi

Yes my dd does I just assumed it was an age thing. She does it all the time. Only if I tickle her I get a genuine laugh.

 

[SophiasMummy]

My 8yr old has had a fake laugh for as long as i can remember. She's not ticklish but if someone tickles her she will pretend to laugh because she's seen others do it and also when people tell jokes you can see she doesnt get it but she'll laugh because she knows that your meant to laugh at jokes. She's been under the senco at school since reception class has had a couple assesments for speach and language and seen the educational psychologist through school. She has a lot of problems retaining information and everything she does take in gets muddled so she is currently 2 years behind in school and her dr has just referred her to a team that deals with autism and attention deficit disorder. So we're waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully we'll finally get somewhere we've been going around in circles with school for the last 2 years, various things being promised that havent happened or after pestering constantly have eventually happened nearly a year later than they were meant to