WiseTip: CD-PLY-M0003-I01B

Cognitive Development

Promoting Imitation & Symbolic Play

Make sounds with your mouth and watch to see if your baby imitates you. You can also copy the sounds your baby makes to encourage a back-and-forth interaction.

WHY IT MATTERS

Researchers have posited that mirroring back behaviour is emotionally pleasing to infants and facilitates further communication.

Meltzoff, A.N. (1999) Born to Learn: What Infants Learn from Watching Us in N. Fox & J.G. Worhol (Eds.), The Role of Early Experience in Infant Development, Skillman, NJ: Paediatric Institute Publications, 1999.

This to-and-fro imitative interaction promotes communication and builds bonds between the adult and child.

Newborns as young as 42 minutes old match gestures shown to them, including tongue protrusion and mouth opening.

Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1997). Explaining facial imitation: A theoretical model. Infant and child development, 6(3‐4), 179-192.

This is remarkable because infants cannot yet see their own faces, and have never seen their reflection in a mirror. Yet, they can map from the behaviour of the person they observe and produce the same actions. Neuroscience findings have indeed shown that when babies see others produce actions with a particular body part, their brains are activated correspondingly.

Meltzoff A. N. (2007). The 'like me' framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent. Acta Psychologica, 124(1), 26–43.

Studies have found that child-directed actions produce greater imitation than adult-directed actions.

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Meltzoff, A.N. (1999) Born to Learn: What Infants Learn from Watching Us in N. Fox & J.G. Worhol (Eds.), The Role of Early Experience in Infant Development, Skillman, NJ: Paediatric Institute Publications, 1999.
Williamson RA, Brand RJ. (2014). Child-directed action promotes 2-year-olds' imitation. J Exp Child Psychol.118:119–126.

Hence, imitating a child is more effective in promoting imitation skills than expecting the child to imitate an adult.