My toddler, Tom, runs across the room shrieking with delight, as I follow close behind saying in my most ominous voice: "I'm coming to getcha! I'm coming to getcha!"
It's our newest game and he loves it, often collapsing in a fit of giggles.
The other thing that has him in hysterics is me pretending to swallow a small plastic box that I keep in our bedroom, then spitting it back out. This sounds slightly revolting and a little insane, but Tom thinks it's the funniest thing ever.
"Laughter is important for children for many reasons but particularly for language development," says Jacqueline Gerard, a speech therapist at Southside Family Health Centre. "Laughter happens in nursery rhymes and in books. It happens with a different tone and usually at the end of a sentence. Babies and toddlers hear these events often in their environment and they begin to expect laughing at the end of sentences or with a particular sound or tone. Hence we have the beginning of joint attention (both caregiver and baby laugh at the same thing), turn taking (caregiver laughs and baby laughs) and even [identifying through tone] that a sentence is ending."
It's hard to believe that our chases or crazy spitting games are improving Tom's language skills, but it seems they are.
"Laughter develops as a child develops in understanding their environment, learning language and, of course, physical development," Gerard says. "One might hear babbling from a very young baby in a responsive or interactive manner, then cooing, then, at about four months, it turns into laughter."