
Laura Bentley plays along with her toddler's big "scare"
Toddlers are small chubby balls of energy and giggles. If anyone needs a good laugh, you can give a toddler a magazine and watch them tear it to shreds as they fall to pieces with laughter from the noise. Suffice it to say, toddlers are easily amused and emit belly laughs at the slightest hint of humor. A mom in Queensland, Australia caught her toddler's hilarity on video and shared it with her 73,000 Instagram followers. Laura Bentley is a mom of four, and one of them is a precocious toddler who cracks herself up while scaring her mom with a crocodile puppet.
Bentley set up the camera and sat criss-cross applesauce (cross-legged for those without littles) on the floor preparing to feign terrified. Her youngest daughter then made her move as she saw her mom sitting “unsuspectingly.” Pure joy radiates through your screen as the tiny girl toddles up behind her mom and scares her with her puppet. She giggles hysterically before getting her mom one more time with her crocodile-puppet-covered hand.
Bentley jumps and screams loudly, obviously playing along with her toddler’s game of scare mom. After the second “gotcha” moment, the laughing toddler comforts her mom by showing her it was just her hand the whole time, not some hungry crocodile who got lost in their living room. Mom breathes a sigh of relief as she covers her eyes from the shock of it all.
On Instagram, commenters laughed along with the sweetly mischievous toddler. One commenter said “I’ve watched this 1,000 times. Sooooo cute and so sweet that she showed you at the end it was just her hand.”
Another person said “I shouldn’t have clicked the video, I knew better but here I am 30 loops in.”
The comments go on and on about how this little one has brightened up their day and gave them a chuckle in the process.
It’s clear that this kid brought much-needed sunshine in a gloomy world. I’m sure she keeps her family in stitches, and the way she showed her mom her dimpled hand at the end tells us she’s familiar with how pranks work. The heartwarming video has amassed more than 43,000 views since it was posted, and the views keep climbing. It was originally posted in 2019, but it seems with the state of the world, it's breathing much-needed normalcy into people’s lives, so it’s no wonder it has started to take off again.
It just proves that when you’re a parent with multiple children, you never know what may be coming around the corner. You learn to roll with the punches and pretend screams of terror at the drop of a hat, all to make your children laugh. And laugh is exactly what the littlest Bentley did. If this family doesn’t already have someone to fill the role of prankster, baby sister has just put in her application, and she’s ready to claim her spot.
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."
This article originally appeared in May.