Encourage your baby to imitate noises or faces. Hoicka, E., Mowat, R., Kirkwood, J., Kerr, T., Carberry, M., & Bijvoet, van den B. S. (2016). One-Year-Olds Think Creatively, Just Like Their Parents. Child Development, 87(4), 1099–1105. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12531 New Jersey Birth to Three Early Learning Standards. (2013). New Jersey Council for Young Children. Russ, S.W. (2014). Pretend play in childhood: Foundation of adult creativity. Washington: American Psychological Association.
Play starts “primitively” as sensorimotor play before the first to second year, with an exploration of properties and functions of objects, and imitation. Towards the end of this stage, children may imitate actions they observe in adults.
Fostering imitation skills helps children learn. Imitating the divergent thinking of adults around the child also helps them become more creative.
Imitation is a stage children pass through before moving on to symbolic or pretend play, between one and two years.
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