At which age do children begin to engage in word play and begin to like jokes…

Children's sense of humour develops alongside their language and cognitive growth. Understanding a pun or a riddle that turns on a play on words requires metalinguistic awareness — the ability to recognise that a single word or phrase can carry more than one meaning, or that different words can sound alike. This awareness is a hallmark of the school-age years, once children move beyond literal, single-meaning language use.

By around seven years of age — within Piaget's concrete operational stage — children have built enough vocabulary and language flexibility to notice double meanings and sound-alike words, which is exactly what a pun or a word-riddle depends on. This is the age at which children begin to actively engage in and enjoy this kind of word play.

• One year: children are at the one-word stage, producing single words for familiar objects and immediate needs, with no basis yet for grasping double meanings.

• Three years: vocabulary is growing fast and children can form short sentences of three or more words, but language use is still literal, well before the metalinguistic awareness word play needs.

• Twelve years: children have already been in the concrete or formal operational stages for years, so the ability to enjoy word play is long-established rather than newly emerging; this age does not mark its onset.

So seven years is the age at which children begin to engage in word play and enjoy jokes and riddles built on a play on words, matching the CTET (2023, Paper 1) official answer key.