A child's laughter and giggles are always delightful but what I recently realized is that laughter is a universal language. I was recently on a family trip and it seemed that many of the people staying at the same hotel spoke a myriad of languages. Whether we were on the beach, or in a restaurant or just wandering around I heard so many different languages. French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin and Dutch, just to name a few that I recognized.
But, what I did love watching was the children of so many nationalities. Although different in many ways, they were also very similar. In so many different situations they were giggling and laughing. Despite the fact that I had no idea what they had been talking about with their friends or family members, those precious laughs make everyone smile, no matter what the language.
Children were being thrown into the pool or wading into the ocean and all you heard were giggles. Those sounds of pure joy makes everyone smile. Just like a baby's first coos, the laughter of a child is something to always be remembered and with all of the electronics available it is now easy to capture those moments without having to pull out the video camera of days the olden days!
I wish I could have made a tape of just my children's laughs. Beginning with the first little gurgles and coos and then through those toddler years with silly giggling, followed by the laughter of the middle years and their later laughs of teens and young adults. These tapes could be replayed over and over and no need for pictures, just the mental image of what might have been occurring during those laughs would be enough. What fabulous auditory memories.
Sounds like a new project to me!
Dr.
Sue Hubbard is an award winning pediatrician and medical editor for
www.kidsdr.com. She is a native of Washington, D.C. who travelled south
to attend the University of Texas at Austin and never left. 
